| 1. |
- Binnewies, Julia, et al.
(författare)
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Associations of depression and regional brain structure across the adult lifespan : Pooled analyses of six population-based and two clinical cohort studies in the European Lifebrain consortium
- 2022
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Ingår i: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier. - 2213-1582. ; 36
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: Major depressive disorder has been associated with lower prefrontal thickness and hippocampal volume, but it is unknown whether this association also holds for depressive symptoms in the general population. We investigated associations of depressive symptoms and depression status with brain structures across population-based and patient-control cohorts, and explored whether these associations are similar over the lifespan and across sexes.Methods: We included 3,447 participants aged 18–89 years from six population-based and two clinical patient-control cohorts of the European Lifebrain consortium. Cross-sectional meta-analyses using individual person data were performed for associations of depressive symptoms and depression status with FreeSurfer-derived thickness of bilateral rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), and hippocampal and total grey matter volume (GMV), separately for population-based and clinical cohorts.Results: Across patient-control cohorts, depressive symptoms and presence of mild-to-severe depression were associated with lower mOFC thickness (rsymptoms = −0.15/ rstatus = −0.22), rACC thickness (rsymptoms = −0.20/ rstatus = −0.25), hippocampal volume (rsymptoms = −0.13/ rstatus = 0.13) and total GMV (rsymptoms = −0.21/ rstatus = −0.25). Effect sizes were slightly larger for presence of moderate-to-severe depression. Associations were similar across age groups and sex. Across population-based cohorts, no associations between depression and brain structures were observed.Conclusions: Fitting with previous meta-analyses, depressive symptoms and depression status were associated with lower mOFC, rACC thickness, and hippocampal and total grey matter volume in clinical patient-control cohorts, although effect sizes were small. The absence of consistent associations in population-based cohorts with mostly mild depressive symptoms, suggests that significantly lower thickness and volume of the studied brain structures are only detectable in clinical populations with more severe depressive symptoms.
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| 2. |
- Binnewies, Julia, et al.
(författare)
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Lifestyle-related risk factors and their cumulative associations with hippocampal and total grey matter volume across the adult lifespan : a pooled analysis in the European Lifebrain consortium
- 2023
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Ingår i: Brain Research Bulletin. - : Elsevier. - 0361-9230 .- 1873-2747. ; 200
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Lifestyle-related risk factors, such as obesity, physical inactivity, short sleep, smoking and alcohol use, have been associated with low hippocampal and total grey matter volumes (GMV). However, these risk factors have mostly been assessed as separate factors, leaving it unknown if variance explained by these factors is overlapping or additive. We investigated associations of five lifestyle-related factors separately and cumulatively with hippocampal and total GMV, pooled across eight European cohorts.Methods: We included 3838 participants aged 18–90 years from eight cohorts of the European Lifebrain consortium. Using individual person data, we performed cross-sectional meta-analyses on associations of presence of lifestyle-related risk factors separately (overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, short sleep, smoking, high alcohol use) as well as a cumulative unhealthy lifestyle score (counting the number of present lifestyle-related risk factors) with FreeSurfer-derived hippocampal volume and total GMV. Lifestyle-related risk factors were defined according to public health guidelines.Results: High alcohol use was associated with lower hippocampal volume (r = −0.10, p = 0.021), and overweight/obesity with lower total GMV (r = −0.09, p = 0.001). Other lifestyle-related risk factors were not significantly associated with hippocampal volume or GMV. The cumulative unhealthy lifestyle score was negatively associated with total GMV (r = −0.08, p = 0.001), but not hippocampal volume (r = −0.01, p = 0.625).Conclusions: This large pooled study confirmed the negative association of some lifestyle-related risk factors with hippocampal volume and GMV, although with small effect sizes. Lifestyle factors should not be seen in isolation as there is evidence that having multiple unhealthy lifestyle factors is associated with a linear reduction in overall brain volume.
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| 3. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(författare)
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Is short sleep bad for the brain? : Brain structure and cognitive function in short sleepers
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Neuroscience. - 0270-6474 .- 1529-2401. ; 43:28, s. 5241-5250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many sleep less than recommended without experiencing daytime sleepiness. According to prevailing views, short sleep increases risk of lower brain health and cognitive function. Chronic mild sleep deprivation could cause undetected sleep debt, negatively affecting cognitive function and brain health. However, it is possible that some have less sleep need and are more resistant to negative effects of sleep loss. We investigated this using a cross-sectional and longitudinal sample of 47,029 participants of both sexes (20-89 years) from the Lifebrain consortium, Human Connectome project (HCP) and UK Biobank (UKB), with measures of self-reported sleep, including 51,295 MRIs of the brain and cognitive tests. A total of 740 participants who reported to sleep <6 h did not experience daytime sleepiness or sleep problems/disturbances interfering with falling or staying asleep. These short sleepers showed significantly larger regional brain volumes than both short sleepers with daytime sleepiness and sleep problems (n = 1742) and participants sleeping the recommended 7-8 h (n = 3886). However, both groups of short sleepers showed slightly lower general cognitive function (GCA), 0.16 and 0.19 SDs, respectively. Analyses using accelerometer-estimated sleep duration confirmed the findings, and the associations remained after controlling for body mass index, depression symptoms, income, and education. The results suggest that some people can cope with less sleep without obvious negative associations with brain morphometry and that sleepiness and sleep problems may be more related to brain structural differences than duration. However, the slightly lower performance on tests of general cognitive abilities warrants closer examination in natural settings.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Short habitual sleep is prevalent, with unknown consequences for brain health and cognitive performance. Here, we show that daytime sleepiness and sleep problems are more strongly related to regional brain volumes than sleep duration. However, participants sleeping ≤6 h had slightly lower scores on tests of general cognitive function (GCA). This indicates that sleep need is individual and that sleep duration per se is very weakly if at all related brain health, while daytime sleepiness and sleep problems may show somewhat stronger associations. The association between habitual short sleep and lower scores on tests of general cognitive abilities must be further scrutinized in natural settings.
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| 4. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(författare)
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No phenotypic or genotypic evidence for a link between sleep duration and brain atrophy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Human Behaviour. - : Springer Nature. - 2397-3374. ; 7:11, s. 2008-2022
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Short sleep is held to cause poorer brain health, but is short sleep associated with higher rates of brain structural decline? Analysing 8,153 longitudinal MRIs from 3,893 healthy adults, we found no evidence for an association between sleep duration and brain atrophy. In contrast, cross-sectional analyses (51,295 observations) showed inverse U-shaped relationships, where a duration of 6.5 (95% confidence interval, (5.7, 7.3)) hours was associated with the thickest cortex and largest volumes relative to intracranial volume. This fits converging evidence from research on mortality, health and cognition that points to roughly seven hours being associated with good health. Genome-wide association analyses suggested that genes associated with longer sleep for below-average sleepers were linked to shorter sleep for above-average sleepers. Mendelian randomization did not yield evidence for causal impacts of sleep on brain structure. The combined results challenge the notion that habitual short sleep causes brain atrophy, suggesting that normal brains promote adequate sleep duration—which is shorter than current recommendations.
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| 5. |
- Friedman, Barbara Bodorkos, et al.
(författare)
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Are People Ready for Personalized Brain Health? Perspectives of Research Participants in the Lifebrain Consortium
- 2020
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Ingår i: The Gerontologist. - : Oxford University Press. - 0016-9013 .- 1758-5341. ; 60:6, s. E374-E383
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A healthy brain is central to physical and mental well-being. In this multi-site, qualitative study, we investigated views and attitudes of adult participants in brain research studies on the brain and personalized brain health as well as interest in maintaining a healthy brain.DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted individual interviews with 44 adult participants in brain research cohorts of the Lifebrain consortium in Spain, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded using a cross-country codebook. The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.RESULTS: Most participants did not focus on their own brain health and expressed uncertainty regarding how to maintain it. Those actively focusing on brain health often picked one specific strategy like diet or memory training. The participants were interested in taking brain health tests to learn about their individual risk of developing brain diseases, and were willing to take measures to maintain their brain health if personalized follow-up was provided and the measures had proven impact. The participants were interested in more information on brain health. No differences in responses were identified between age groups, sex, or countries.DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Concise, practical, personalized, and evidence-based information about the brain may promote brain health. Based on our findings, we have launched an ongoing global brain health survey to acquire more extensive, quantitative, and representative data on public perception of personalized brain health.
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| 6. |
- Nyberg, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Educational attainment does not influence brain aging
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 118:18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Education has been related to various advantageous lifetime outcomes. Here, using longitudinal structural MRI data (4,422 observations), we tested the influential hypothesis that higher education translates into slower rates of brain aging. Cross-sectionally, education was modestly associated with regional cortical volume. However, despite marked mean atrophy in the cortex and hippocampus, education did not influence rates of change. The results were replicated across two independent samples. Our findings challenge the view that higher education slows brain aging.
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| 7. |
- Nyberg, Lars, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Individual differences in brain aging : heterogeneity in cortico-hippocampal but not caudate atrophy rates
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press. - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 33:9, s. 5075-5081
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is well documented that some brain regions, such as association cortices, caudate, and hippocampus, are particularly prone to age-related atrophy, but it has been hypothesized that there are individual differences in atrophy profiles. Here, we document heterogeneity in regional-atrophy patterns using latent-profile analysis of 1,482 longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging observations. The results supported a 2-group solution reflecting differences in atrophy rates in cortical regions and hippocampus along with comparable caudate atrophy. The higher-atrophy group had the most marked atrophy in hippocampus and also lower episodic memory, and their normal caudate atrophy rate was accompanied by larger baseline volumes. Our findings support and refine models of heterogeneity in brain aging and suggest distinct mechanisms of atrophy in striatal versus hippocampal-cortical systems.
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| 8. |
- Solé-Padullés, Cristina, et al.
(författare)
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No Association Between Loneliness, Episodic Memory and Hippocampal Volume Change in Young and Healthy Older Adults : A Longitudinal European Multicenter Study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1663-4365 .- 1663-4365. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Loneliness is most prevalent during adolescence and late life and has been associated with mental health disorders as well as with cognitive decline during aging. Associations between longitudinal measures of loneliness and verbal episodic memory and brain structure should thus be investigated.Methods: We sought to determine associations between loneliness and verbal episodic memory as well as loneliness and hippocampal volume trajectories across three longitudinal cohorts within the Lifebrain Consortium, including children, adolescents (N = 69, age range 10–15 at baseline examination) and older adults (N = 1468 over 60). We also explored putative loneliness correlates of cortical thinning across the entire cortical mantle.Results: Loneliness was associated with worsening of verbal episodic memory in one cohort of older adults. Specifically, reporting medium to high levels of loneliness over time was related to significantly increased memory loss at follow-up examinations. The significance of the loneliness-memory change association was lost when eight participants were excluded after having developed dementia in any of the subsequent follow-up assessments. No significant structural brain correlates of loneliness were found, neither hippocampal volume change nor cortical thinning.Conclusion: In the present longitudinal European multicenter study, the association between loneliness and episodic memory was mainly driven by individuals exhibiting progressive cognitive decline, which reinforces previous findings associating loneliness with cognitive impairment and dementia.
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| 9. |
- Vidal-Pineiro, Didac, et al.
(författare)
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Individual variations in 'brain age' relate to early-life factors more than to longitudinal brain change
- 2021
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications. - 2050-084X. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brain age is a widely used index for quantifying individuals’ brain health as deviation from a normative brain aging trajectory. Higher-than-expected brain age is thought partially to reflect above-average rate of brain aging. Here, we explicitly tested this assumption in two indepen-dent large test datasets (UK Biobank [main] and Lifebrain [replication]; longitudinal observations ≈ 2750 and 4200) by assessing the relationship between cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of brain age. Brain age models were estimated in two different training datasets (n ≈ 38,000 [main] and 1800 individuals [replication]) based on brain structural features. The results showed no association between cross-sectional brain age and the rate of brain change measured longitudinally. Rather, brain age in adulthood was associated with the congenital factors of birth weight and polygenic scores of brain age, assumed to reflect a constant, lifelong influence on brain structure from early life. The results call for nuanced interpretations of cross-sectional indices of the aging brain and question their validity as markers of ongoing within-person changes of the aging brain. Longitudinal imaging data should be preferred whenever the goal is to understand individual change trajectories of brain and cognition in aging.
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| 10. |
- Walhovd, Kristine B., et al.
(författare)
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Education and Income Show Heterogeneous Relationships to Lifespan Brain and Cognitive Differences Across European and US Cohorts
- 2022
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Ingår i: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press. - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 32:4, s. 839-854
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Higher socio-economic status (SES) has been proposed to have facilitating and protective effects on brain and cognition. We ask whether relationships between SES, brain volumes and cognitive ability differ across cohorts, by age and national origin. European and US cohorts covering the lifespan were studied (4-97 years, N = 500 000; 54 000 w/brain imaging). There was substantial heterogeneity across cohorts for all associations. Education was positively related to intracranial (ICV) and total gray matter (GM) volume. Income was related to ICV, but not GM. We did not observe reliable differences in associations as a function of age. SES was more strongly related to brain and cognition in US than European cohorts. Sample representativity varies, and this study cannot identify mechanisms underlying differences in associations across cohorts. Differences in neuroanatomical volumes partially explained SES-cognition relationships. SES was more strongly related to ICV than to GM, implying that SES-cognition relations in adulthood are less likely grounded in neuroprotective effects on GM volume in aging. The relatively stronger SES-ICV associations rather are compatible with SES-brain volume relationships being established early in life, as ICV stabilizes in childhood. The findings underscore that SES has no uniform association with, or impact on, brain and cognition.
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