Cardiovascular and metabolic health is associated with functional brain connectivity in middle-aged and older adults: Results from the Human Connectome Project-Aging study
Barnaly Rashid,
Matthew F. Glasser,
Thomas Nichols,
David Van Essen,
Meher R. Juttukonda,
Nadine A. Schwab,
Douglas N Greve,
Essa Yacoub,
Allison Lovely,
Melissa Terpstra,
Michael P. Harms,
Susan Y. Bookheimer,
Beau M. Ances,
David H. Salat,
Steven E. Arnold
Affiliations
Barnaly Rashid
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Corresponding authors.
Matthew F. Glasser
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
Thomas Nichols
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
David Van Essen
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
Meher R. Juttukonda
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Nadine A. Schwab
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Douglas N Greve
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Essa Yacoub
Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Allison Lovely
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Melissa Terpstra
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Michael P. Harms
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
Susan Y. Bookheimer
University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Beau M. Ances
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States; Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
David H. Salat
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Corresponding authors.
Steven E. Arnold
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Charlestown, MA 02129, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Corresponding authors.
Several cardiovascular and metabolic indicators, such as cholesterol and blood pressure have been associated with altered neural and cognitive health as well as increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in later life. In this cross-sectional study, we examined how an aggregate index of cardiovascular and metabolic risk factor measures was associated with correlation-based estimates of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) across a broad adult age-span (36–90+ years) from 930 volunteers in the Human Connectome Project Aging (HCP-A). Increased (i.e., worse) aggregate cardiometabolic scores were associated with reduced FC globally, with especially strong effects in insular, medial frontal, medial parietal, and superior temporal regions. Additionally, at the network-level, FC between core brain networks, such as default-mode and cingulo-opercular, as well as dorsal attention networks, showed strong effects of cardiometabolic risk. These findings highlight the lifespan impact of cardiovascular and metabolic health on whole-brain functional integrity and how these conditions may disrupt higher-order network integrity.
