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Cognitively stimulating environments and cognitive reserve: the case of personal social networks.

ABSTRACT: Cognitively stimulating environments are thought to be protective of cognitive decline and onset of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) through the development of cognitive reserve (CR). CR refers to cognitive adaptability that buffers the impact of brain pathology on cognitive function. Despite the critical need to identify cognitively stimulating environments to build CR, there is no consensus regarding which environmental determinants are most effective. Rather, most studies use education as proxies for CR and little is known about the association between older adults' personal social networks and CR. Using neuroimaging data from 135 older adults participating in the Social Networks in Alzheimer Disease (SNAD) study, this article adopted a residual method for measuring CR and found that large network size, high network diversity, and loosely connected networks were positively associated with greater CR. These results suggest that expansive social networks in later life may constitute cognitively stimulating environments which can be leveraged to build CR and reduce the burden of ADRD.

SUBMITTER: Peng S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9019994 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Cognitively stimulating environments and cognitive reserve: the case of personal social networks.

Peng Siyun S Roth Adam R AR Apostolova Liana G LG Saykin Andrew J AJ Perry Brea L BL

Neurobiology of aging 20220204

Cognitively stimulating environments are thought to be protective of cognitive decline and onset of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) through the development of cognitive reserve (CR). CR refers to cognitive adaptability that buffers the impact of brain pathology on cognitive function. Despite the critical need to identify cognitively stimulating environments to build CR, there is no consensus regarding which environmental determinants are most effective. Rather, most studies use ...[more]

PMID: 35231846

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Project description:BackgroundBoth Alzheimer's disease (AD) genetic risk factors and indices of cognitive reserve (CR) influence risk of cognitive decline, but it remains unclear whether they interact. This study examined whether a CR index score modifies the relationship between AD genetic risk factors and long-term cognitive trajectories in a large sample of individuals with normal cognition.MethodsAnalyses used data from the Preclinical AD Consortium, including harmonized data from 5 longitudinal cohort studies. Participants were cognitively normal at baseline (M baseline age = 64 years, 59% female) and underwent 10 years of follow-up, on average. AD genetic risk was measured by (i) apolipoprotein-E (APOE) genetic status (APOE-ε2 and APOE-ε4 vs. APOE-ε3; N = 1819) and (ii) AD polygenic risk scores (AD-PRS; N = 1175). A CR index was calculated by combining years of education and literacy scores. Longitudinal cognitive performance was measured by harmonized factor scores for global cognition, episodic memory, and executive function.ResultsIn mixed-effects models, higher CR index scores were associated with better baseline cognitive performance for all cognitive outcomes. APOE-ε4 genotype and AD-PRS that included the APOE region (AD-PRSAPOE) were associated with declines in all cognitive domains, whereas AD-PRS that excluded the APOE region (AD-PRSw/oAPOE) was associated with declines in executive function and global cognition, but not memory. There were significant 3-way CR index score × APOE-ε4 × time interactions for the global (p = 0.04, effect size = 0.16) and memory scores (p = 0.01, effect size = 0.22), indicating the negative effect of APOE-ε4 genotype on global and episodic memory score change was attenuated among individuals with higher CR index scores. In contrast, levels of CR did not attenuate APOE-ε4-related declines in executive function or declines associated with higher AD-PRS. APOE-ε2 genotype was unrelated to cognition.ConclusionsThese results suggest that APOE-ε4 and non-APOE-ε4 AD polygenic risk are independently associated with global cognitive and executive function declines among individuals with normal cognition at baseline, but only APOE-ε4 is associated with declines in episodic memory. Importantly, higher levels of CR may mitigate APOE-ε4-related declines in some cognitive domains. Future research is needed to address study limitations, including generalizability due to cohort demographic characteristics.

Project description:An adequate understanding of the acculturation processes affecting immigrants and their descendants involves ascertaining the dynamic interplay between the way these individuals manage their multiple (and sometimes conflictual) cultural value systems and identifications and possible changes in their social networks. To fill this gap, the present research examines how key acculturation variables (e.g., strength of ethnic/host cultural identifications, bicultural identity integration or BII) relate to the composition and structure of bicultural individuals' personal social networks. In Study 1, we relied on a generationally and culturally diverse community sample of 123 Latinos residing in the US. Participants nominated eight individuals (i.e., alters) from their habitual social networks and across two relational domains: friendships and colleagues. Results indicated that the interconnection of same ethnicity alters across different relationship domains is linked to cultural identifications, while the amount of coethnic and host individuals in the network is not. In particular, higher interconnection between Latino friends and colleagues was linked to lower levels of U.S.Conversely, the interconnection of non-Latino friends and colleagues was associated with lower levels of Latino identification. This pattern of results suggests that the relational context for each type of cultural identification works in a subtractive and inverse manner. Further, time spent in the US was linked to both Latino and U.S. cultural identifications, but this relationship was moderated by the level of BII. Specifically, the association between time in the US and strength of both cultural identities was stronger for individuals reporting low levels of BII. Taking the findings from Study 1 as departure point, Study 2 used an agent-based model data simulation approach to explore the dynamic ways in which the content and the structure of an immigrant's social network might matter over time in predicting three possible identity patterns: coexisting cultural identifications, conflicting cultural identifications, and a mixture of the two. These simulations allowed us to detect network constellations, which lead to identification or disidentification with both cultures. We showed that distinct patterns of social relations do not lead to identity outcomes in a deterministic fashion, but that often many different outcomes are probable.

Dataset Information

Cognitively stimulating environments and cognitive reserve: the case of personal social networks.

Publications

Cognitively stimulating environments and cognitive reserve: the case of personal social networks.

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