Summary: To calculate the biological age of 70-year-olds, researchers used AI to assess their mental images and find connections between life and wellness factors. Diabetes, disease, and high glucose levels were linked to older-looking neurons, while regular exercise and healthy patterns were associated with younger-looking neurons.
The study emphasizes the need to maintain capillary health in order to safeguard mental resilience against aging. The researchers will look into gender differences and social wellbeing influences on mental resilience in future studies and to improve the AI device for medical use.
Important Information:
- Older-Looking Brains: Conditions like diabetes, stroke, and disease were associated with brains appearing medically older.
- Younger-Looking Brains: Good habits, including regular practice, correlated with younger brains appearances.
- AI Potential: An Artificial tool provided robust estimates of biological brains age, probably valuable in future scientific memory evaluations.
Origin: Karolinska Institute
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet used an AI tool to analyze mental images of 70-year-olds and determine their brains ‘ biological age.
They discovered that brains with older appearances are linked to factors that are harmful to capillary health, such as swelling and high glucose levels, whereas healthier habits were linked to brains with a younger appearance.
The results are presented in , Alzheimer’s &, Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Every year, over 20, 000 people in Sweden create some form of delirium, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for nearly two-thirds of circumstances. However, different risk and heath factors affect the speed at which the brain ages.
” Despite the recent introduction of new Alzheimer’s drugs, they will not work for people with delirium, so we want to examine what can increase the body’s endurance against pathological age processes” says the article’s lead author Anna Marseglia,  , researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet.
AI-derived brain age
The study involved 739 cognitively healthy 70-year-olds, 389 of whom were female, recruited from Gothenburg’s H70 cohort in Sweden. The researchers used their own AI-based algorithm to calculate the age of the resulting brain images using MRI scans of their patients.
” The algorithm is both accurate and robust, yet easy to use”, says principal investigator Eric Westman, professor of Neurogeriatrics at the same department. ” It’s a research tool that still needs further evaluation, but our aim is for it also to be of clinical use in the future, such as in dementia investigations”.
The brain images were complemented with blood samples for measuring lipids, glucose, and inflammation. Additionally, the participants conducted cognitive testing. Additionally, information on lifestyle factors like exercise and medical conditions was also available.
Brains with an older appearance
According to the AI tool, the brain age for both sexes is on average 71 years. The researchers then compared the participants ‘ chronological age and their estimated biological brain age to examine the “brain age gap.”
The researchers found that diabetes, stroke, cerebral small vessel disease, and inflammation were linked to brains with an older appearance, whereas a healthy lifestyle involving regular exercise could be linked to brains of a younger appearance.
” A take-home from the study is that factors that adversely affect the blood vessels can also be related to older-looking brains, which shows how important it is to keep your blood vessels healthy, to protect your brain, by making sure, for instance, that your blood glucose level is kept stable”, says Anna Marseglia.
Next, studies of sex differences
Women and men may differ in how they build resilience, a phenomenon that the researchers are now investigating by looking at biological determinants like hormones as well as sociocultural influences. The differences in the brains of women and men are related to older- and younger-looking brains.
” Next year, we’ll launch a study to understand how social health – including social engagement, connectedness, and support – in middle and older age, along with sleep and stress, influence brain resilience, with a focus on women’s health factors”, says Anna Marseglia.
Funding: The study was primarily supported by grants from the Centre for Innovative Medicine, Forte, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Brain Foundation, the Swedish Alzheimer’s Foundation, the Swedish Dementia Foundations, the David and Astrid Hagelén Foundation, StratNeuro, the Foundation for Geriatric Diseases at Karolinska Institutet, the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation for Medical Research, the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation and the Collaboratory on Research Definitions for Reserve and Resilience in Cognitive Aging and Dementia.
No researcher from Karolinska Institutet has reported a conflict of interest, while co-author Silke Kern has declared ties with Roche, Geras Solutions, Optoceutics, Eli Lilly, Biogen and Bioarctic.
About this news about research into brain aging and AI.
Author: Press Office
Source: Karolinska Institute
Contact: Press Office – Karolinska Institute
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” Biological brain age and resilience in cognitively unimpaired 70-year-old individuals” by Anna Marseglia et al. Alzheimer’s &, Dementia
Abstract
Biological brain age and resilience in cognitively unimpaired 70-year-old individuals
INTRODUCTION
This study investigated the associations of brain age gap ( BAG ) —a biological marker of brain resilience—with life exposures, neuroimaging measures, biological processes, and cognitive function.
METHODS
We calculated BAG by dividing 739 septuagenarians without dementia or neurological disorders’ predicted brain age from chronological age. BAG associations were analyzed by robust linear regression models for neurodegeneration, vascular brain injury, plasma inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers, magnetic resonance imaging, and cognitive performance.
RESULTS
Greater BAG (older-looking brains ) was associated with physical inactivity, diabetes, and stroke, while prediabetes was related to lower BAG, that is, younger-looking brains. Physical activity reduced the association between BAG and obesity. Greater BAG was associated with greater small vessel disease burden, white-matter alterations, inflammation, high glucose, poorer vascular-related cognitive domains. Sex-specific associations were identified.
DISCUSSION
Vascular-related lifestyles and health shape brain appearance. Insulin and its related processes may be the key to understanding vascular cognitive disorders.
