Cardiovascular risk of dementia is associated with brain-behaviour changes in cognitively healthy, middle-aged individuals

Feng Deng, Maria-Eleni Dounavi, Emanuele R G Plini, Karen Ritchie, Graciela Muniz-Terrera, Siobhan Hutchinson, Paresh Malhotra, Craig W Ritchie, Brian Lawlor, Lorina Naci*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) neuropathology start decades before clinical manifestations, but whether risk factors are associated with early cognitive and brain changes in midlife remains poorly understood. We examined whether AD risk factors were associated with cognition and functional connectivity (FC) between the Locus Coeruleus (LC) and hippocampus - two key brain structures in AD neuropathology - cross-sectionally and longitudinally in cognitively healthy midlife individuals. Neuropsychological assessments and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging were obtained at baseline (N=210), and two-years follow-up (N=188). Associations of cognition and FC with apolipoprotein ε4 (APOE ε4) genotype, family history of dementia, and the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) score were investigated. Cross-sectionally, higher CAIDE scores were associated with worse cognition. Menopausal status interacted with the CAIDE risk on cognition. Furthermore, the CAIDE score significantly moderated the relationship between cognition and LC-Hippocampus FC. Longitudinally, the LC-Hippocampus FC decreased significantly over 2 years. These results suggest that cardiovascular risk of dementia is associated with brain-behaviour changes in cognitively healthy, middle-aged individuals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)78-92
Number of pages15
JournalNeurobiology of Aging
Volume144
Early online date13 Sept 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 13 Sept 2024

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