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Association of allostatic load with brain structure and cognitive ability in later life.

ABSTRACT: Allostatic load (AL) has been proposed as a general framework for understanding the cumulative effects of life stress on individuals. Despite growing interest in AL, limited research has been conducted on aging samples. We consider the association of AL (operationalized by a range of inflammatory, cardiovascular, and metabolic measures) with a range of brain volume measurements and cognitive ability in a large cohort sample of older adults (n = 658, mean age = 72.5 years, standard deviation = 0.7) using structural equation modeling. AL was significantly inversely associated with total brain volume (range of standardized ? = -0.16 to -0.20) and white-matter volume (-0.35 to -0.36) and positively with hippocampal volume (0.10-0.15) but not gray-matter volume (0.04). AL was also significantly inversely associated with general cognitive ability (range ? = -0.13 to -0.20), processing speed (-0.20 to -0.22), and knowledge (-0.18 to -0.20) but not memory or nonverbal reasoning. The associations of AL with cognitive abilities were not mediated by these brain volume measures. AL did not predict cognitive change from age 11 to approximately age 73. The findings suggest a link between AL and later life brain health and cognitive functioning.

SUBMITTER: Booth T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4353502 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Association of allostatic load with brain structure and cognitive ability in later life.

Booth Tom T Royle Natalie A NA Corley Janie J Gow Alan J AJ Valdés Hernández Maria del C Mdel C Muñoz Maniega Susana S Ritchie Stuart J SJ Bastin Mark E ME Starr John M JM Wardlaw Joanna M JM Deary Ian J IJ

Neurobiology of aging 20141222 3

Allostatic load (AL) has been proposed as a general framework for understanding the cumulative effects of life stress on individuals. Despite growing interest in AL, limited research has been conducted on aging samples. We consider the association of AL (operationalized by a range of inflammatory, cardiovascular, and metabolic measures) with a range of brain volume measurements and cognitive ability in a large cohort sample of older adults (n = 658, mean age = 72.5 years, standard deviation = 0. ...[more]

PMID: 25659881

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Project description:IntroductionThe hippocampus plays an important role in cognitive abilities which often decline with advancing age.MethodsIn a longitudinal study of community-dwelling adults, we investigated whether there were coupled changes in hippocampal structure and verbal memory, working memory, and processing speed between the ages of 73 (N = 655) and 76 years (N = 469). Hippocampal structure was indexed by hippocampal volume, hippocampal volume as a percentage of intracranial volume (H_ICV), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and longitudinal relaxation time (T1).ResultsMean levels of hippocampal volume, H_ICV, FA, T1, and all three cognitive abilities domains decreased, whereas MD increased, from age 73 to 76. At baseline, higher hippocampal volume was associated with better working memory and verbal memory, but none of these correlations survived correction for multiple comparisons. Higher FA, lower MD, and lower T1 at baseline were associated with better cognitive abilities in all three domains; only the correlation between baseline hippocampal MD and T1, and change in the three cognitive domains, survived correction for multiple comparisons. Individuals with higher hippocampal MD at age 73 experienced a greater decline in all three cognitive abilities between ages 73 and 76. However, no significant associations with changes in cognitive abilities were found with hippocampal volume, FA, and T1 measures at baseline. Similarly, no significant associations were found between cognitive abilities at age 73 and changes in the hippocampal MRI biomarkers between ages 73 and 76.ConclusionOur results provide evidence to better understand how the hippocampus ages in healthy adults in relation to the cognitive domains in which it is involved, suggesting that better hippocampal MD at age 73 predicts less relative decline in three important cognitive domains across the next 3 years. It can potentially assist in diagnosing early stages of aging-related neuropathologies, because in some cases, accelerated decline could predict pathologies.

Dataset Information

Association of allostatic load with brain structure and cognitive ability in later life.

Publications

Association of allostatic load with brain structure and cognitive ability in later life.

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