Leisure Activities and Their Relationship With MRI Measures of Brain Structure, Functional Connectivity, and Cognition in the UK Biobank Cohort

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate whether engagement in leisure activities is linked to measures of brain structure, functional connectivity, and cognition in early old age.Methods: We examined data collected from 7,152 participants of the United Kingdom Biobank (UK Biobank) study. Weekly participation in six leisure activities was assessed twice and a cognitive battery and 3T MRI brain scan were administered at the second visit. Based on responses collected at two time points, individuals were split into one of four trajectory groups: (1) stable low engagement, (2) stable weekly engagement, (3) low to weekly engagement, and (4) weekly to low engagement.Results: Consistent weekly attendance at a sports club or gym was associated with connectivity of the sensorimotor functional network with the lateral visual (β = 0.12, 95%CI = [0.07, 0.18], FDR q = 2.48 × 10–3) and cerebellar (β = 0.12, 95%CI = [0.07, 0.18], FDR q = 1.23 × 10–4) networks. Visiting friends and family across the two timepoints was also associated with larger volumes of the occipital lobe (β = 0.15, 95%CI = [0.08, 0.21], FDR q = 0.03). Additionally, stable and weekly computer use was associated with global cognition (β = 0.62, 95%CI = [0.35, 0.89], FDR q = 1.16 × 10–4). No other associations were significant (FDR q > 0.05).Discussion: This study demonstrates that not all leisure activities contribute to cognitive health equally, nor is there one unifying neural signature across diverse leisure activities.

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Mid-life and late life activities and their relationship with MRI measures of brain structure and functional connectivity in the UK Biobank cohort

10.1101/2020.04.10.035451 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Melis Anatürk ◽

Sana Suri ◽

Stephen M. Smith ◽

Klaus P. Ebmeier ◽

Claire E. Sexton

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Fluid Intelligence ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Late Life ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Sensorimotor Network ◽

Sports Club ◽

Frequent Attendance ◽

The Uk

AbstractINTRODUCTIONThis study aimed to evaluate whether mid-life and late life participation in leisure activities is linked to measures of brain structure, functional connectivity and cognition in early old age.METHODSWe examined data collected from 7,152 participants of the UK Biobank study. Weekly participation in six leisure activities was assessed twice. A cognitive battery and 3T MRI brain scan were administered at the second visit.RESULTSWeekly computer use at mid-life associated with larger volumes of the left putamen and higher scores for fluid intelligence, alphanumeric and numeric trail making tasks and prospective memory. Frequent attendance at a sports club or gym at mid-life was associated with stronger connectivity of the sensorimotor network with the lateral visual and cerebellar networks. No other associations were significant.DISCUSSIONThis study demonstrates that not all leisure activities contribute to cognitive health equally, nor is there one unifying neural signature across leisure activities.

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Associations of cigarette smoking with gray and white matter in the UK Biobank

10.31234/osf.io/wyvnm ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Joshua Gray ◽

Matthew Thompson ◽

Chelsie Benca-Bachman ◽

Max Michael Owens ◽

Mikela Murphy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Cigarette Smoking ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Mean Diffusivity ◽

Medial Lemniscus ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Increased Risk ◽

The Uk

Chronic cigarette smoking is associated with increased risk for myriad health consequences including cognitive decline and dementia, but research on the link between smoking and brain structure is nascent. We assessed the relationship of cigarette smoking (ever smoked, cigarettes per day, and duration) with gray and white matter using the UK Biobank cohort (gray matter N = 19,615; white matter N = 17,760), adjusting for numerous demographic and health confounders. Ever smoked and duration were associated with smaller total gray matter volume. Ever smoked was associated with reduced volume of the right VIIIa cerebellum, as well as elevated white matter hyperintensity volumes. Smoking duration was associated with reduced total white matter volume. With regard to specific tracts, ever smoked was associated with reduced fractional anisotropy in the left cingulate gyrus part of the cingulum, left posterior thalamic radiation, and bilateral superior thalamic radiation and increased mean diffusivity in the middle cerebellar peduncle, right medial lemniscus, bilateral posterior thalamic radiation, and bilateral superior thalamic radiation. Overall, we found significant associations of cigarette exposure with global measures of gray and white matter. Furthermore, we found select associations of ever smoked, but not cigarettes per day or duration, with specific gray and white matter regions. These findings inform our understanding of the connections between smoking and variation in brain structure and clarify potential mechanisms of risk for common neurological sequelae.

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SU75ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN POLYGENIC RISK FOR LOW CIRCADIAN AMPLITUDE AND RISK TAKING BEHAVIOUR AND BRAIN STRUCTURE IN THE UK BIOBANK COHORT

European Neuropsychopharmacology ◽

10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.08.439 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. S1306-S1307

Author(s):

Laura Lyall ◽

Amy Ferguson ◽

Rona Strawbridge ◽

Joey Ward ◽

Cathy Wyse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Polygenic Risk ◽

The Uk

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Homozygosity for TYK2 P1104A underlies tuberculosis in about 1% of patients in a cohort of European ancestry

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1903561116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (21) ◽

pp. 10430-10434 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Gaspard Kerner ◽

Noe Ramirez-Alejo ◽

Yoann Seeleuthner ◽

Rui Yang ◽

Masato Ogishi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Odds Ratio ◽

Genetic Basis ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

European Ancestry ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Common ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Uk ◽

High Level

The human genetic basis of tuberculosis (TB) has long remained elusive. We recently reported a high level of enrichment in homozygosity for the common TYK2 P1104A variant in a heterogeneous cohort of patients with TB from non-European countries in which TB is endemic. This variant is homozygous in ∼1/600 Europeans and ∼1/5,000 people from other countries outside East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We report a study of this variant in the UK Biobank cohort. The frequency of P1104A homozygotes was much higher in patients with TB (6/620, 1%) than in controls (228/114,473, 0.2%), with an odds ratio (OR) adjusted for ancestry of 5.0 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.96–10.31, P = 2 × 10−3]. Conversely, we did not observe enrichment for P1104A heterozygosity, or for TYK2 I684S or V362F homozygosity or heterozygosity. Moreover, it is unlikely that more than 10% of controls were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as 97% were of European genetic ancestry, born between 1939 and 1970, and resided in the United Kingdom. Had all of them been infected, the OR for developing TB upon infection would be higher. These findings suggest that homozygosity for TYK2 P1104A may account for ∼1% of TB cases in Europeans.

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Altered Cortical Brain Structure and Increased Risk for Disease Seen Decades After Perinatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking: A Study of 9000 Adults in the UK Biobank

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhz060 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (12) ◽

pp. 5217-5233 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lauren E Salminen ◽

Rand R Wilcox ◽

Alyssa H Zhu ◽

Brandalyn C Riedel ◽

Christopher R K Ching ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Structure ◽

Brain Mri ◽

Population Based ◽

Smoke Exposure ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Increase Risk ◽

Sensory Cortices ◽

The Uk

Abstract Secondhand smoke exposure is a major public health risk that is especially harmful to the developing brain, but it is unclear if early exposure affects brain structure during middle age and older adulthood. Here we analyzed brain MRI data from the UK Biobank in a population-based sample of individuals (ages 44–80) who were exposed (n = 2510) or unexposed (n = 6079) to smoking around birth. We used robust statistical models, including quantile regressions, to test the effect of perinatal smoke exposure (PSE) on cortical surface area (SA), thickness, and subcortical volumes. We hypothesized that PSE would be associated with cortical disruption in primary sensory areas compared to unexposed (PSE−) adults. After adjusting for multiple comparisons, SA was significantly lower in the pericalcarine (PCAL), inferior parietal (IPL), and regions of the temporal and frontal cortex of PSE+ adults; these abnormalities were associated with increased risk for several diseases, including circulatory and endocrine conditions. Sensitivity analyses conducted in a hold-out group of healthy participants (exposed, n = 109, unexposed, n = 315) replicated the effect of PSE on SA in the PCAL and IPL. Collectively our results show a negative, long term effect of PSE on sensory cortices that may increase risk for disease later in life.

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A framework for research into continental ancestry groups of the UK Biobank

10.1101/2021.12.14.472589 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Andrei-Emil Constantinescu ◽

Ruth E Mitchell ◽

Jie Zheng ◽

Caroline J Bull ◽

Nicholas J Timpson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Population Structure ◽

Principal Component ◽

European Ancestry ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Ancestry Group ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Health And Disease ◽

Birth Data ◽

The Uk ◽

Epidemiology Studies

The UK Biobank is a large prospective cohort, based in the United Kingdom, that has deep phenotypic and genomic data on roughly a half a million individuals. Included in this resource are data on approximately 78,000 individuals with "non-white British ancestry". Whilst most epidemiology studies have focused predominantly on populations of European ancestry, there is an opportunity to contribute to the study of health and disease for a broader segment of the population by making use of the UK Biobank's "non-white British ancestry" samples. Here we present an empirical description of the continental ancestry and population structure among the individuals in this UK Biobank subset. Reference populations from the 1000 Genomes Project for Africa, Europe, East Asia, and South Asia were used to estimate ancestry for each individual. Those with at least 80% ancestry in one of these four continental ancestry groups were taken forward (N=62,484). Principal component and K-means clustering analyses were used to identify and characterize population structure within each ancestry group. Of the approximately 78,000 individuals in the UK Biobank that are of "non-white British" ancestry, 50,685, 6,653, 2,782, and 2,364 individuals were associated to the European, African, South Asian, and East Asian continental ancestry groups, respectively. Each continental ancestry group exhibits prominent population structure that is consistent with self-reported country of birth data and geography. Methods outlined here provide an avenue to leverage UK Biobank's deeply phenotyped data allowing researchers to maximise its potential in the study of health and disease in individuals of non-white British ancestry.

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Using the UK Biobank as a global reference of worldwide populations: application to measuring ancestry diversity from GWAS summary statistics

10.1101/2021.10.27.466078 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Florian Privé

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Cohort Study ◽

Summary Statistics ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Reference Groups ◽

Phenotypic Data ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Four Corners ◽

The World ◽

The Uk

The UK Biobank project is a prospective cohort study with deep genetic and phenotypic data collected on almost 500,000 individuals from across the United Kingdom. Within this dataset, we carefully define 17 distinct ancestry groups from all four corners of the world. Using allele frequencies derived from these global reference groups, we are now able to effectively measure diversity from summary statistics of any genetic dataset. Measuring genetic diversity is an important problem because increasing genetic diversity is key to making new genetic discoveries, while also being a major source of confounding to be aware of in genetics studies.

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Resting-State Network Analysis of Suicide Attempt History in the UK Biobank

10.1101/2022.01.04.474947 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew F Thompson ◽

Marjan Ghahramanlou-Holloway ◽

Mikela A. Murphy ◽

Kanchana U. Perera ◽

Chelsie Benca-Bachman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Suicide Attempt ◽

Resting State ◽

Suicide Risk ◽

Future Research ◽

Control Group ◽

Large Sample Size ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Resting State Network ◽

The Uk

Background: Prior research has identified altered brain structure and function in individuals at risk for self-directed violence thoughts and behaviors. However, these studies have largely utilized healthy controls and findings have been inconsistent. Thus, this study examined differences in resting-state functional network connectivity among individuals with lifetime suicide attempt(s) versus lifetime self-directed violence thoughts alone. Methods: Using data from the UK Biobank, this study utilized a series of linear regressions to compare individuals with lifetime suicide attempt(s) (n = 566) versus lifetime self-directed violence thoughts alone (n = 3,447) on within- and between- network resting-state functional connectivity subnetworks. Results: There were no significant between-group differences for between-network, within-network, or whole-brain functional connectivity after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, and body mass index and performing statistical corrections for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Resting-state network measures may not differentiate between individuals with lifetime suicide attempt(s) and lifetime self-directed violence thoughts alone. Null findings diverge from results reported in smaller neuroimaging studies of suicide risk, but are consistent with null findings in other large-scale studies and meta-analyses. Strengths of the study include its large sample size and stringent control group. Future research on a wider array of imaging, genetic, and psychosocial risk factors can clarify relative contributions of individual and combined variables to suicide risk and inform scientific understanding of ideation-to-action framework.

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Can a data driven obesity classification system identify those at risk of severe COVID-19 in the UK Biobank cohort study?

International Journal of Obesity ◽

10.1038/s41366-021-00891-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen Clark ◽

Michelle Morris ◽

Nik Lomax ◽

Mark Birkin

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Classification System ◽

Holistic Approach ◽

Data Driven ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Individual ◽

The Uk

AbstractCOVID-19 is a disease that has been shown to have outcomes that vary by certain socio-demographic and socio-economic groups. It is increasingly important that an understanding of these outcomes should be derived not from the consideration of one aspect, but by a more multi-faceted understanding of the individual. In this study use is made of a recent obesity driven classification of participants in the United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) to identify trends in COVID-19 outcomes. This classification is informed by a recently created obesity systems map, and the COVID-19 outcomes are: undertaking a test, a positive test, hospitalisation and mortality. It is demonstrated that the classification is able to identify meaningful differentials in these outcomes. This more holistic approach is recommended for identification and prioritisation of COVID-19 risk and possible long-COVID determination.

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Sugary beverage intake and genetic risk in relation to brain structure and incident dementia: evidence from the UK Biobank

10.21203/rs.3.rs-882320/v2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hui Chen ◽

Jie Chen ◽

Yaying Cao ◽

Yuhao Sun ◽

Liyan Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Structure ◽

Genetic Risk ◽

Medical Records ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Sweetened Beverages ◽

Dementia Risk ◽

Incident Dementia ◽

Genetic Risks ◽

The Uk ◽

Artificially Sweetened Beverages

Abstract IntroductionThis study investigated the relation of sugary beverage (SB) intake to brain structure and dementia risk.MethodsAmong 187,994 UK Biobank participants, intake of SBs (one unit=250 mL) and specific subtypes was assessed using repeated 24-hr dietary recalls. Multivariable-adjusted hazard rations (HR) was estimated for incident dementia identified through medical records and death registries.ResultsDuring 1,790,996 person-years, 1,351 dementia cases were identified. Higher intake (>2 units/d v. none) of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) (HR=1.47, 95%CI: 1.13~1.92) and artificially-sweetened beverages (ASB) (HR=1.41, 1.00~1.99) was associated with an elevated dementia risk. Conversely, moderate intake of natural sweet juices (NSJ) (>0 and <=1 unit/d v. none) was related to a decreased risk (HR=0.80, 0.71~0.90). The associations were consistent with related brain structural markers and modified by genetic risks (P-interaction<0.002).DiscussionThese findings underscored that SSB and ASB could be risk factors of dementia, while moderate NSJ intake could potentially reduce dementia risk.

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