Older-looking brains linked to lower birth weight and genes

Date:
November 16, 2021
Source:
University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Center for Lifespan
Changes in Brain and Cognition
Summary:
In brain scans of almost 1500 people throughout Europe, researchers
found that people with 'older-looking' brains had both lower
birth weight and genes for smaller brains, compared with those
with normal aging brains.

Both these factors are present early in life, indicating that your
'brain age' is mostly related to early life influences and not so
much on events that happen later in life.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers in brain science and aging are very interested in measuring
the health of a brain using a single observation. The most popular way
to measure it is through a method called "brain age." This measurement,
"brain age," has a lot of potential as can be used to detect and follow-up individuals at risk for dementia or cognitive (e.g. memory) problems in
the future.


==========================================================================
This measurement estimates the brain age of a brain scan and compares
it to the person's actual age to determine whether their brain is aging
faster or slower than expected for their age. Individuals can have brains
that appear older or younger than their own age.

Often, researchers say individuals with older-looking brains have
an accelerated brain aging, which means their brains age faster than
expected.

Older brain are essentially smaller, with bigger ventricles and thinner
cortex.

However, since brain age relies on one brain scan taken at one point in
time, it has not been clear whether it really measures brain aging or
if it might capture brain differences that have been present throughout
the individual's life.

This study demonstrates that the brain agescore is in fact unable to
predict, using a single brain scan, the pace of aging in the participants' brains.

Instead, it reflects early-life conditions, some of them present even
before you were born.

Scanned 1500 brains In the current study the researchers measured the
pace of brain aging in almost 1.500 adult individuals (from ages 20
to 90 years of age) by scanning their brains several times over a long
period of time (up to 10 years). They coupled this with data on their
birth weight and genetics from the UK and Lifebrain biobanks.



========================================================================== Firstly, they found that estimated brain age did not strongly relate to
the rate of brain aging in adults. In other words, a single estimate of
brain age cannot tell you how an individual's brain is changing over time.

Secondly, they found that estimated higher brain age is associated
with lower birth weight and a genetic disposition of an individual to
have smaller brains, bigger ventricles and, thinner cortex compared to
other individuals.

Early-life influences on brain age The results suggests that a person's
brain age reflect early-life influences on brain structure, and only to
a very modest degree reflects brain changes in middle and old adulthood.

So why do some people's brain age faster than normal?


==========================================================================
Lead author of the study, Didac Vidal-Pineiro, at the University of Oslo explains: "Individuals with older-looking brains do not necessarily
present accelerated aging and deteriorations. Rather, older brains
most likely reflect normal differences that were already present early
in life and that remained constant throughout the lifespan. We showed
these differences can be both genetic and environmental as birth-weight partially reflects the "womb" environment." Implications for neuroscience
The results show the need to rely on longitudinal data (several scans
from the same individual, over time) whenever the goal is to understand
changes in brain and cognition in aging.

BRAIN AGE
* Brain age estimates the biological age of an individual by applying
machine learning to brain scans to predict chronological age.

* The specific features selected by the machine learning algorithm
are then
used to compute the individuals' brain age.

* Finally, individuals' brain ageis compared to chronological
brain age.

Researchers often express this comparison as older/younger-looking
brains compared to the individuals' own (chronological) age.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Oslo,_Department_of_Psychology,_Center_for Lifespan_Changes_in_Brain_and_Cognition. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Didac Vidal-Pineiro, Yunpeng Wang, Stine K Krogsrud, Inge K Amlien,
William FC Baare', David Bartres-Faz, Lars Bertram, Andreas M
Brandmaier, Christian A Drevon, Sandra Du"zel, Klaus Ebmeier,
Richard N Henson, Carme Junque', Rogier Andrew Kievit, Simone Ku"hn,
Esten Leonardsen, Ulman Lindenberger, Kathrine S Madsen, Fredrik
Magnussen, Athanasia Monika Mowinckel, Lars Nyberg, James M Roe,
Barbara Segura, Stephen M Smith, O/ ystein So/rensen, Sana Suri,
Rene Westerhausen, Andrew Zalesky, Enikő Zsoldos, Kristine
Beate Walhovd, Anders Fjell. Individual variations in `brain age'
relate to early-life factors more than to longitudinal brain
change. eLife, 2021; 10 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.69995 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211116111357.htm

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