Age-Dependent Association Between Cognitive Reserve Proxy and Longitudinal White Matter Microstructure in Older Adults.

This study examined the association of lifetime experiences, measured by a cognitive reserve (CR) composite score composed of years of education, literacy, and vocabulary measures, to level and rate of change in white matter microstructure, as assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures. We also examined whether the relationship between the proxy CR composite score and white matter microstructure was modified by participant age, A sample of 192 non-demented ( Using longitudinal linear mixed effect models, we found that FA decreased over time and RD increased over time in both the global and MTL DTI composites, but the rate of change in these DTI measures was not related to level of CR. However, there were significant interactions between the CR composite score and age for global RD in the full sample, and for global FA, global RD, and MTL RD among those with normal cognition. These interactions indicated that among participants with a lower baseline age, higher CR composite scores were associated with higher FA and lower RD values, while among participants with higher age at baseline, higher CR composite scores were associated with lower FA and higher RD values. Furthermore, these relationships were not modified by The association between level of CR and DTI measures differs by age, suggesting a possible neuroprotective effect of CR among late middle-aged adults that shifts to a compensatory effect among older adults.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2022 Brichko, Soldan, Zhu, Wang, Faria, Albert, Pettigrew and The BIOCARD Research Team.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

MA is an advisor to Eli Lily. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.