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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2025; 15(10): 109273
Published online Oct 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i10.109273
Structural brain correlates of neuropsychomotor performance in older adults with early cognitive decline
Haewon Byeon
Haewon Byeon, Worker's Care and Digital Health Lab, Department of Future Technology, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan 31253, South Korea
Author contributions: Byeon H contributed to this paper; involved in data interpretation; developed methodology; writing the article.
Supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, No. NRF- RS-2023-00237287; and New Professor Research Program of KOREATECH in 2025.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Haewon Byeon, PhD, Associate Professor, Director, Worker's Care and Digital Health Lab, Department of Future Technology, Korea University of Technology and Education, 1600 Chungjeol-ro, Cheonan 31253, South Korea. bhwpuma@naver.com
Received: May 7, 2025
Revised: May 26, 2025
Accepted: August 1, 2025
Published online: October 19, 2025
Processing time: 143 Days and 4.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Yue et al's study links reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in specific brain regions (temporal, frontal, occipital, parietal) to both cognitive decline and impaired motor function (gait disturbances) in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Utilizing voxel-based morphometry, the study found correlations between regional atrophy and performance on tests like mini-metal state examination, Cambridge cognitive examination-Chinese version, timed up and go test, and walking speed. This reinforces GMV's potential as an aMCI biomarker and supports the idea of shared brain networks for cognition and motor control. However, the cross-sectional design prevents establishing causality. Future longitudinal research is essential to clarify the temporal relationship between brain atrophy and functional decline in aMCI.