scholarly journals Plasma lipid and liporotein biomarkers in LBC1936: Do they predict general cognitive ability and brain structure?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Harris ◽  
Stuart J Ritchie ◽  
Gonçalo D S Correia ◽  
Beatriz Jiménez ◽  
Chloe Fawns-Ritchie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Plasma Lipid ◽  
Penalized Regression ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Total Brain Volume

AbstractIdentifying predictors of cognitive ability and brain structure in later life is an important step towards understanding the mechanisms leading to cognitive decline and dementia. This study used ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to measure targeted and untargeted metabolites, mainly lipids and lipoproteins, in ∼600 members of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) at aged ∼73 years. Penalized regression models (LASSO) were then used to identify sets of metabolites that predict variation in general cognitive ability and structural brain variables. UPLC-MS-POS measured lipids, together predicted 19% of the variance in total brain volume and 17% of the variance in both grey matter and normal appearing white matter volumes. Multiple subclasses of lipids were included in the predictor, but the best performing lipid was the sphingomyelin SM(d18:2/14:0) which occurred in 100% of iterations of all three significant models. No metabolite set predicted cognitive ability, or white matter hyperintensities or connectivity. Future studies should concentrate on identifying specific lipids as potential cognitive and brain-structural biomarkers in older individuals.

scholarly journals Birth weight is associated with brain tissue volumes seven decades later, but not with age-associated changes to brain structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily N. W. Wheater ◽  
Susan D. Shenkin ◽  
Susana Muñoz Maniega ◽  
Maria Valdés Hernández ◽  
Joanna M. Wardlaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Brain Tissue ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Mri Features

AbstractBirth weight, an indicator of fetal growth, is associated with cognitive outcomes in early life and risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease across the life course. Cognitive ability in early life is predictive of cognitive ability in later life. Brain health in older age, defined by MRI features, is associated with cognitive performance. However, little is known about how variation in normal birth weight impacts on brain structure in later life. In a community dwelling cohort of participants in their early seventies we tested the hypothesis that birthweight is associated with the following MRI features: total brain (TB), grey matter (GM) and normal appearing white matter (NAWM) volumes; whiter matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume; a general factor of fractional anisotropy (gFA) and peak width skeletonised mean diffusivity (PSMD) across the white matter skeleton. We also investigated the associations of birthweight with cortical surface area, volume and thickness. Birthweight was positively associated with TB, GM and NAWM volumes in later life (β ≥ 0.194), and with regional cortical surface area but not gFA, PSMD, WMH volume, or cortical volume or thickness. These positive relationships appear to be explained by larger intracranial volume rather than by age-related tissue atrophy, and are independent of body height and weight in adulthood. This suggests that larger birthweight is linked to increased brain tissue reserve in older life, rather than a resilience to age-related changes in brain structure, such as tissue atrophy or WMH volume.Significance StatementCognitive brain ageing carries a high personal, societal and financial cost and understanding its developmental origins is important for identifying possible preventative strategies. In a sample of older participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 we were able to explore the neurobiological correlates of birth weight, which is indicative of the fetal experience. We find that higher birth weight is related to larger brain tissue volumes in later life, but does not modify the trajectory of age-related change. This suggests that early life growth confers preserved differentiation, rather than differential preservation with regards to brain reserve. That these effects are detectable into later life indicates that this variable may be valuable biomarker in the epidemiology of ageing.

scholarly journals Brain imaging correlates of general intelligence in UK Biobank

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
SR Cox ◽  
SJ Ritchie ◽  
C Fawns-Ritchie ◽  
EM Tucker-Drob ◽  
IJ Deary
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Brain Volume ◽  
Brain Mri ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
General Factor ◽  
General Intelligence ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Total Brain Volume ◽  
Total Brain

AbstractThe associations between indices of brain structure and measured intelligence are not clear. In part, this is because the evidence to date comes from mostly small and heterogenous studies. Here, we report brain structure-intelligence associations on a large sample from the UK Biobank study. The overall N = 29,004, with N = 18,363 participants providing both brain MRI and cognitive data, and a minimum N = 7318 providing the MRI data alongside a complete four-test battery. Participants’ age range was 44-81 years (M = 63.13, SD = 7.48). A general factor of intelligence (g) was extracted from four varied cognitive tests, accounting for one third of the variance in the cognitive test scores. The association between (age-and sex-corrected) total brain volume and a latent factor of general intelligence is r = 0.275, 95% C.I. = [0.252, 0.299]. A model that incorporated multiple global measures of grey and white matter macro-and microstructure accounted for more than double the g variance in older participants compared to those in middle-age (13.4% and 5.9%, respectively). There were no sex differences in the magnitude of associations between g and total brain volume or other global aspects of brain structure. The largest brain regional correlates of g were volumes of the insula, frontal, anterior/superior and medial temporal, posterior and paracingulate, lateral occipital cortices, thalamic volume, and the white matter microstructure of thalamic and association fibres, and of the forceps minor.

scholarly journals White matter maturation profiles through early childhood predict general cognitive ability

2014 ◽  
Vol 221 (2) ◽  
pp. 1189-1203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean C. L. Deoni ◽  
Jonathan O’Muircheartaigh ◽  
Jed T. Elison ◽  
Lindsay Walker ◽  
Ellen Doernberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
White Matter Maturation

scholarly journals The Dyslexia Candidate Locus on 2p12 Is Associated with General Cognitive Ability and White Matter Structure

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. e50321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Scerri ◽  
Fahimeh Darki ◽  
Dianne F. Newbury ◽  
Andrew J. O. Whitehouse ◽  
Myriam Peyrard-Janvid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Candidate Locus

scholarly journals Neurology-related protein biomarkers are associated with general fluid cognitive ability and brain volume in older age

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Harris ◽  
Simon R. Cox ◽  
Steven Bell ◽  
Riccardo E. Marioni ◽  
Bram P Prins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Birth Cohort ◽  
Plasma Levels ◽  
Brain Volume ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Total Brain Volume ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Lothian Birth Cohort ◽  
Related Proteins

AbstractIdentifying the biological correlates of late life cognitive function is important if we are to ascertain biomarkers for, and develop treatments to help reduce, age-related cognitive decline. This study investigated the associations between plasma levels of 91 neurology-related proteins (Olink® Proteomics) and general fluid cognitive ability in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936, N=798), the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (LBC1921, N=165), and the INTERVAL BioResource, (N=4,451). In LBC1936, we also examined mediation of protein-cognitive ability associations by MRI-derived indices of brain structure. In the LBC1936, 22 of the proteins and the first principal component (PC) created from a PC analysis of the 91 proteins, were associated with general fluid cognitive ability (β between −0.11 and −0.17, p<0.0029). Total brain volume partially mediated the association between 10 of these proteins and general fluid cognitive ability. Effect sizes for the 22 proteins, although smaller, were all in the same direction as in LBC1936 in an age-matched subsample of INTERVAL. Similar effect sizes were found for the majority of these 22 proteins in the older LBC1921. The associations were not replicated in a younger subset of INTERVAL. In conclusion, we identified plasma levels of a number of neurology-related proteins that were associated with general fluid cognitive ability in later life, some of which were mediated by brain volume.

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

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 1390-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Booth ◽  
Natalie A. Royle ◽  
Janie Corley ◽  
Alan J. Gow ◽  
Maria del C. Valdés Hernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Later Life

Sex Differences in Childhood Associations between DNA Markers and General Cognitive Ability

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Arden ◽  
Nicole Harlaar ◽  
Robert Plomin
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Dna Markers ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
The Difference

Abstract. An association between intelligence at age 7 and a set of five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has been identified and replicated. We used this composite SNP set to investigate whether the associations differ between boys and girls for general cognitive ability at ages 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, and 10 years. In a longitudinal community sample of British twins aged 2-10 (n > 4,000 individuals), we found that the SNP set is more strongly associated with intelligence in males than in females at ages 7, 9, and 10 and the difference is significant at 10. If this finding replicates in other studies, these results will constitute the first evidence of the same autosomal genes acting differently on intelligence in the two sexes.

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