Food for thought: Nutrient intake is linked to cognition and healthy brain aging

summary: A new study reveals that nutrient intake, brain structure and cognitive function contribute to brain health in older adults. This study found that blood markers of specific fatty acids are associated with better memory and larger brain structures in specific areas, suggesting a comprehensive approach to diet and nutrition to promote healthy aging. It suggests the value of the approach.

sauce: University of Illinois

In a new study, scientists explored the links between three indicators known to independently predict healthy aging: nutrient intake, brain structure and cognitive function. . Their analysis adds evidence that these factors together contribute to brain health in older adults.

reported in journal of nutrition, in this study, blood markers of two saturated fatty acids, along with specific omega-6, -7, and -9 fatty acids, correlated with better scores on memory tests, showing that the frontal, temporal, parietal, and insula was found to correlate with larger brain structures in cortex.

While other studies have found one-to-one associations between individual nutrients or classes of nutrients and specific brain regions or functions, there is a holistic view of brain health, cognition, and broad dietary patterns as a whole. Ph.D. in psychology, bioengineering, and neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with postdoctoral fellow Tambia Tarkdar and psychology researcher Chris Zwilling, explored this topic. led the research.

All three co-authors are from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Iowa.

“Our findings reveal that nutritional biomarkers, cognitive tests, and MRI measurements of brain structures can be used to explain many of the variability in healthy aging.” , aging and disease.”

Researchers collected data from 111 healthy older adults using MRI structural scans, blood-based biomarkers of 52 dietary nutrients, and cognitive performance on tests of memory and intelligence. By combining these measurements using , the team discovered connections between dozens of features that appear to work together to promote brain and cognitive health in older adults.

Data fusion allows researchers to examine multiple datasets and map traits and features that have common patterns of variation, said Talukdar, who adjusted the method to incorporate nutritional, cognitive and brain volumetric data. I’m here.

“We’re exploring all these relationships together,” he said. “This allows us to identify specific features clustered together.”

This overcomes some of the limitations of analyzing individual factors, Barvey said.

“If you don’t study cognition by looking only at nutrition related to brain structure, or if you look at nutrition related to cognition and don’t study the brain, you’re actually missing a really important piece of information.”

The most obvious features clustered together in the new analysis included the size of gray matter volume in the frontal, temporal and parietal cortices. performance on tests of auditory memory and short- and long-term memory; blood markers associated with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption;

Study participants who scored higher on memory tests tended to have higher amounts of gray matter and higher levels of markers of omega-6, -7, and -9 fatty acids in their blood. Analyzes revealed that those with less gray matter had less gray mass in those brain regions and lower levels of these dietary markers.

While this study only reveals links between these factors and does not prove that diet directly promotes brain health, nutrition does play an important role in healthy aging. Adding evidence that there is, the researchers said.

“Our work motivates a more holistic picture of healthy aging,” Zwilling said. This provides insight into the importance of diet and nutrition, and the value of data fusion methods for studying the neuroscience contribution of adult development and aging. “

Funding: This work was supported by a grant from Abbott Nutrition through the U. of I. Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory.

About this Brain Aging and Nutrition Research News

author: Diana Yates
sauce: University of Illinois
contact: Diana Yates – University of Illinois
image: image is public domain

Original research: open access.
“Integrating Nutritional Biomarkers, Cognitive Function, and Structural MRI Data to Build Multivariate Phenotypes of Healthy Agingby Aron Barvey et al. journal of nutrition

overview

Integrating Nutritional Biomarkers, Cognitive Function, and Structural MRI Data to Build Multivariate Phenotypes of Healthy Aging

Background

Research in the emerging field of nutritional cognitive neuroscience shows that many aspects of nutrition, from whole diets to specific nutrients, influence cognitive performance and brain health.

the purpose

While previous studies have mainly examined bivariate relationships between nutrition and cognition, or nutrition and brain health, this study explores the collaboration between these essential and interacting components of human health. I tried to investigate the relationship.

method

State-of-the-art data fusion methods, coupled matrix tensor factors, to characterize associations between nutrition (52 nutritional biomarkers), cognition (Wechsler Short Test of Intelligence and Wechsler Memory Scale), and measures of brain health Applied decomposition. Within a cross-sectional sample of 111 healthy elderly individuals with a mean age of 69.1 years, 62% female, and a mean body mass index of 26.0 kg/m (high-resolution MRI measurements of structural brain volume)².

result

Fusion of the data has revealed potential factors that capture the association between specific nutritional profiles, cognitive measures, and cortical volume, demonstrating the connectivity of these health domains.

Hierarchical cluster analysis further reveals systematic differences between subsets of variables contributing to underlying factors and provides multivariate phenotypic evidence representing high- and low-level performance across multiple health domains it was done.

The main characteristics that distinguish each phenotype are: 1) nutritional biomarkers for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. 2) cognitive measures of immediate, auditory, and delayed memory.and 3) Brain volumes within the frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices.

Conclusion

By incorporating innovations in nutritional epidemiology (nutritional biomarker analysis), cognitive neuroscience (high-resolution brain structural imaging), and statistics (data fusion), this study will explore how nutrition, cognition, and brain health It provides an interdisciplinary synthesis of how to elucidate what is integrated through lifestyle choices that influence healthy aging.