Effects of normal aging on myelin have drawn considerable attention for decades. Previous studies hypothesized that myelin sheath degeneration could result in the reduction of the fraction of myelin water due to the inflow of intra- or extra-cellular water between myelin sheath. This study investigates aging effects on myelin degeneration in elderly macaques using a multi-echo GRE sequence. Using a three-pool model, we observed a significant decrease in the fraction of myelin water in the body of corpus callosum and a negative correlation with ages in 8 monkeys (aged 21~25), indicating heterogeneous degradation of white matter infrastructure with aging.
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