Figure 5.

Mediation effect of regional CBF between WMH load and cognitive function. Diagrams show areas of CBF mediating relationship between WMH load (represented as Fazekas score) and cognitive performance (executive function or episodic memory), and mediation models of pathways from WMH load to CBF reduction in right ITG and right caudate to reduce cognitive performance. In each model, age, sex, and years of education were entered as covariates. βa and βb represent coefficients of relationships between WMH load and regional CBF, and associations between region CBF and cognition (when both WMH load and CBF were both entered into model as predicting variables). Total effect (βc) = Direct effect (βc') + Mediation effect (βa*βb). Mediating role of regional CBF reduction on association between WMH and cognition is defined when 95% confidence interval did not conclude 0 for 5,000 bootstrapping iterations. BG, basal ganglia; CBF, cerebral blood flow; FCS, functional connectivity strength; ITG, inferior temporal gyrus; WMH, white matter hyperintensities. L, left; R, right. Detailed information on brain regions is available at http://atlas.brainnetome.org/.