Table 6.

Exploratory analysis testing for effect of age group^a

Region, metabolite	N, younger, middle, older	Metabolite levels (I.U.)			Significance test
		Younger	Middle	Older
ACC
Lac	19, 19, 16	0.66 ± 0.23*	1.10 ± 1.08	1.63 ± 1.17*	p = 0.007, F(2,50) = 5.46
DLPFC
NAA	20, 20, 19	10.16 ± 0.69*	9.82 ± 0.79	9.41 ± 0.81*	p = 0.015, F(2,55) = 4.51
Hippocampus
Gln	20, 20, 19	1.96 ± 0.49*	2.10 ± 0.67	2.47 ± 0.63*	p = 0.027, F(2,55) = 3.85
NAAG	20, 20, 19	1.84 ± 0.48**	2.26 ± 0.61*	2.28 ± 0.68*	p = 0.041, F(2,55) = 3.39
sIns	18, 18, 18	0.23 ± 0.09*	0.25 ± 0.11*	0.34 ± 0.16**	p = 0.004, F(2,50) = 6.23
Ser	15, 17, 15	0.99 ± 0.40**	1.58 ± 0.58*	1.65 ± 1.03*	p = 0.028, F(2,43) = 3.90
Tau	20, 20, 19	1.57 ± 0.32*	1.67 ± 0.59*	2.09 ± 0.65**	p = 0.013, F(2,55) = 4.70

^aData are mean ± SD. I.U., Institutional units.

Age groups that are pairwise significantly different (p < 0.05):

*different from one other group;

**different from both other groups. Only significant findings are reported.