Date of Completion

2025

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Julie Dumas, PhD.

Second Advisor

David Jangraw, PhD.

Third Advisor

Yuri Hudak, EngD.

Keywords

Dopamine, aging, sex, T2*

Abstract

Dopamine plays a crucial role in reward processing, motor control, and cognitive functions. Levels of dopamine can vary based on sex and age. Men have higher dopamine release in the ventral striatum compared to women, potentially having effect on reward, though further research is needed to understand these differences. Dopamine levels have been shown to naturally decline with age. Reductions can be seen in both dopamine synthesis and receptor availability. This may impact motivation, movement, and cognitive flexibility. Estrogen also has been shown to influence dopamine synthesis, receptor availability, and degradation. During menopause, estrogen levels sharply decline, a dopamine connection may contribute to cognitive and emotional symptoms reported during the menopause transition. This study examined the relationship between dopamine levels, sex, and aging using T2* maps. T2* maps are a measure inversely related to iron deposition, used as a proxy measure for dopamine. Iron is colocalized with dopamine in the brain. Unexpectedly, no significant relationship was found between T2* and age or sex. This suggested that individual variability such as genetic factors and lifestyle influences may contribute to dopamine regulation. Limitations in this work influenced findings, such as averaging the entire brain for T2* values rather than region-specific analyses. Further research should include region specific analyses and estrogen level measurements to better understand how dopamine relates to aging and sex.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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