Fig. 3

Relationship between latent growth parameters from global and regional BLGCMs. We employed longitudinal BLGCMs to characterise the spatiotemporal interrelation between WMH volumes and cortical thickness over the span of four years. We adjusted latent intercepts and slopes for age, sex, years of education, total cardiovascular risk scores, and TICV. (A) Relationship between latent growth curve parameters obtained from the global model. At baseline, individuals with larger WMH volumes had lower cortical thickness. Over time, those experiencing rapid cortical thinning initially had large total WMH volumes. Similarly, those with rapid WMH progression had thinner cortices at baseline. In general, faster WMH progression was linked to more rapid cortical thinning (Q4). (B) Regional analyses suggest cross-domain associations have regional specificities. We applied FDR correction to account for multiple comparisons. In regions highlighted in red, we found a statistically significant covariance between latent growth curve parameters after FDR correction (\({P}_{FDR}<0.05\))