| 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. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(författare)
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Poor Self-Reported Sleep is Related to Regional Cortical Thinning in Aging but not Memory Decline-Results From the Lifebrain Consortium
- 2021
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Ingår i: Cerebral Cortex. - : Oxford University Press. - 1047-3211 .- 1460-2199. ; 31:4, s. 1953-1969
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We examined whether sleep quality and quantity are associated with cortical and memory changes in cognitively healthy participants across the adult lifespan. Associations between self-reported sleep parameters (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and longitudinal cortical change were tested using five samples from the Lifebrain consortium (n = 2205, 4363 MRIs, 18-92 years). In additional analyses, we tested coherence with cell-specific gene expression maps from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, and relations to changes in memory performance. "PSQI # 1 Subjective sleep quality" and "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" were related to thinning of the right lateral temporal cortex, with lower quality and more disturbances being associated with faster thinning. The association with "PSQI #5 Sleep disturbances" emerged after 60 years, especially in regions with high expression of genes related to oligodendrocytes and S1 pyramidal neurons. None of the sleep scales were related to a longitudinal change in episodic memory function, suggesting that sleep-related cortical changes were independent of cognitive decline. The relationship to cortical brain change suggests that self-reported sleep parameters are relevant in lifespan studies, but small effect sizes indicate that self-reported sleep is not a good biomarker of general cortical degeneration in healthy older adults.
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| 6. |
- Fjell, Anders M., et al.
(författare)
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The genetic organization of longitudinal subcortical volumetric change is stable throughout the lifespan running title: Genetics of subcortical lifespan change
- 2021
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Development and aging of the cerebral cortex show similar topographic organization and are governed by the same genes. It is unclear whether the same is true for subcortical regions, which follow fundamentally different ontogenetic and phylogenetic principles. We tested the hypothesis that genetically governed neurodevelopmental processes can be traced throughout life by assessing to which degree brain regions that develop together continue to change together through life. Analyzing over 6000 longitudinal MRIs of the brain, we used graph theory to identify five clusters of coordinated development, indexed as patterns of correlated volumetric change in brain structures. The clusters tended to follow placement along the cranial axis in embryonic brain development, suggesting continuity from prenatal stages, and correlated with cognition. Across independent longitudinal datasets, we demonstrated that developmental clusters were conserved through life. Twin-based genetic correlations revealed distinct sets of genes governing change in each cluster. Single nucleotide polymorphisms-based analyses of 38127 cross-sectional MRIs showed a similar pattern of genetic volume-volume correlations. In conclusion, coordination of subcortical change adheres to fundamental principles of lifespan continuity and genetic organization.
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| 7. |
- Gorbach, Tetiana, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Longitudinal association between hippocampus atrophy and episodic-memory decline in non-demented APOE ε4 carriers
- 2020
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Ingår i: Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2352-8729. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), accelerated cognitive aging, and hippocampal atrophy, but its influence on the association between hippocampus atrophy and episodic-memory decline in non-demented individuals remains unclear.Methods: We analyzed longitudinal (two to six observations) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)–derived hippocampal volumes and episodic memory from 748 individuals (55 to 90 years at baseline, 50% female) from the European Lifebrain consortium.Results: The change-change association for hippocampal volume and memory was significant only in ε4 carriers (N = 173, r = 0.21, P = .007; non-carriers: N = 467, r = 0.073,P = .117). The linear relationship was significantly steeper for the carriers [t(629) =2.4, P = .013]. A similar trend toward a stronger change-change relation for carriers was seen in a subsample with more than two assessments.Discussion: These findings provide evidence for a difference in hippocampus-memory association between ε4 carriers and non-carriers, thus highlighting how genetic factors modulate the translation of the AD-related pathophysiological cascade into cognitive deficits.
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| 8. |
- Lövdén, Martin, 1972, et al.
(författare)
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No moderating influence of education on the association between changes in hippocampus volume and memory performance in aging
- 2023
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Ingår i: Aging Brain. - : Elsevier. - 2589-9589. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contemporary accounts of factors that may modify the risk for age-related neurocognitive disorders highlight education and its contribution to a cognitive reserve. By this view, individuals with higher educational attainment should show weaker associations between changes in brain and cognition than individuals with lower educational attainment. We tested this prediction in longitudinal data on hippocampus volume and episodic memory from 708 middle-aged and older individuals using local structural equation modeling. This technique does not require categorization of years of education and does not constrain the shape of relationships, thereby maximizing the chances of revealing an effect of education on the hippocampus-memory association. The results showed that the data were plausible under the assumption that there was no influence of education on the association between change in episodic memory and change in hippocampus volume. Restricting the sample to individuals with elevated genetic risk for dementia (APOE ε4 carriers) did not change these results. We conclude that the influence of education on changes in episodic memory and hippocampus volume is inconsistent with predictions by the cognitive reserve theory.
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| 9. |
- 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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| 10. |
- 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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