TY - JOUR
T1 - Genes, environment, and time
T2 - The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA)
AU - Kremen, William S.
AU - Thompson-Brenner, Heather
AU - Leung, Yat Ming J.
AU - Grant, Michael D.
AU - Franz, Carol E.
AU - Eisen, Seth A.
AU - Jacobson, Kristen C.
AU - Boake, Corwin
AU - Lyons, Michael J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Diffusion tensor imaging provides microstructural indices of white matter integrity that can be used to make inferences about functional connectivity in the brain. This method measures the diffusion of water molecules. Although water molecules can move in any direction, they tend to flow in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axes of axons. A greater degree of directional flow parallel to the longitudinal axes (i.e., less random flow) implies greater efficiency, and therefore, greater functional connectivity. The VETSA MRI team also works closely with the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN). The BIRN is a multisite project supported by the United States National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources. The overall BIRN principal investigator is Dr. Bruce Rosen; the principal investigator of the morphometry BIRN is Dr Anders Dale, who is also a co-investigator on the VETSA MRI Study at the University of California, San Diego. Part of the collaborative VETSA-BIRN effort is the development of state-of-the-art tractography for delineating brain white matter tracts with diffusion tensor imaging data.
Funding Information:
The US Department of Veterans Affairs supported the development and maintenance of the VET Registry. VETSA is supported by grants from NIH/NIA (ROI AG018286, R01 AG022381 and R01 AG022982). We gratefully acknowledge the continued cooperation and participation of the members of the VET Registry and their families. Without their contribution this research would not have been possible.
PY - 2006/12
Y1 - 2006/12
N2 - The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) is a large-scale investigation of cognitive aging from middle to later age. The intended sample of 1440 twin subjects is recruited from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (VETR), a registry of middle-aged male-male twin pairs who both served in the military during the Vietnam conflict (1965-1975). VETSA employs a multitrait multimethod approach to cognitive assessment to focus on the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive processes over time, as well as the relative contributions to cognitive aging from health, social, personality, and other contextual factors. The cognitive domains of episodic memory, working memory, abstract reasoning, and inhibitory executive functioning are assessed through neuropsychological testing. In addition, VETSA obtains the participant's score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, taken at the time of induction into the military around age 20 years, and readministers the test. Two other projects - VETSA Cortisol and VETSA Magnetic Resonance Imaging - are also in progress using subsamples of the VETSA twins. Prior waves of data collection by VETSA investigators using the VETR have provided historical data on physical and mental health, while future waves of VETSA data collection are planned every 5 years. These methods will provide data on multiple phenotypes in the same individuals with regard to genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive functioning over time, personality and interpersonal risk and protective factors, stress and cortisol regulation, and structural brain correlates of aging processes.
AB - The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) is a large-scale investigation of cognitive aging from middle to later age. The intended sample of 1440 twin subjects is recruited from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (VETR), a registry of middle-aged male-male twin pairs who both served in the military during the Vietnam conflict (1965-1975). VETSA employs a multitrait multimethod approach to cognitive assessment to focus on the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive processes over time, as well as the relative contributions to cognitive aging from health, social, personality, and other contextual factors. The cognitive domains of episodic memory, working memory, abstract reasoning, and inhibitory executive functioning are assessed through neuropsychological testing. In addition, VETSA obtains the participant's score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, taken at the time of induction into the military around age 20 years, and readministers the test. Two other projects - VETSA Cortisol and VETSA Magnetic Resonance Imaging - are also in progress using subsamples of the VETSA twins. Prior waves of data collection by VETSA investigators using the VETR have provided historical data on physical and mental health, while future waves of VETSA data collection are planned every 5 years. These methods will provide data on multiple phenotypes in the same individuals with regard to genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive functioning over time, personality and interpersonal risk and protective factors, stress and cortisol regulation, and structural brain correlates of aging processes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33846232611&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1375/183242706779462750
DO - 10.1375/183242706779462750
M3 - Review article
C2 - 17254445
AN - SCOPUS:33846232611
SN - 1832-4274
VL - 9
SP - 1009
EP - 1022
JO - Twin Research and Human Genetics
JF - Twin Research and Human Genetics
IS - 6
ER -