Dataset Information

Engagement in Enriching Early-Life Activities Is Associated With Larger Hippocampal and Amygdala Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Numerous studies show benefits of mid- and late-life activity on neurocognitive health. Yet, few studies have examined how engagement in enriching activities during childhood, when the brain is most plastic, may confer long-term neurocognitive benefits that may be especially important to individuals raised in low-income settings. We examined associations between enriching early-life activities (EELAs) and hippocampal and amygdala volumes in a sample of predominantly African-American, community-dwelling older adults. We further assessed whether these associations were independent of current activity engagement.

Methods

Ninety participants from the baseline Brain Health Substudy of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial (mean age: 67.4) completed retrospective activity inventories and an magnetic resonance imaging scan. Volumes were segmented using FreeSurfer.

Results

Each additional EELA was associated with a 2.3% (66.6 mm3) greater amygdala volume after adjusting for covariates. For men, each additional EELA was associated with a 4.1% (278.9 mm3) greater hippocampal volume. Associations were specific to these regions when compared with the thalamus, used as a control region.

Discussion

Enriching lifestyle activities during an important window of childhood brain development may be a modifiable factor that impacts lifelong brain reserve, and results highlight the importance of providing access to such activities in historically underserved populations.

SUBMITTER: Moored KD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7489091 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Engagement in Enriching Early-Life Activities Is Associated With Larger Hippocampal and Amygdala Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Moored Kyle D KD Chan Thomas T Varma Vijay R VR Chuang Yi-Fang YF Parisi Jeanine M JM Carlson Michelle C MC

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 20200901 8

<h4>Objectives</h4>Numerous studies show benefits of mid- and late-life activity on neurocognitive health. Yet, few studies have examined how engagement in enriching activities during childhood, when the brain is most plastic, may confer long-term neurocognitive benefits that may be especially important to individuals raised in low-income settings. We examined associations between enriching early-life activities (EELAs) and hippocampal and amygdala volumes in a sample of predominantly African-Am ...[more]

PMID: 30561728

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Project description:Structural measures of the hippocampus have been linked to a variety of memory processes and also to broader cognitive abilities. Gross volumetry has been widely used, yet the hippocampus has a complex formation, comprising distinct subfields which may be differentially sensitive to the deleterious effects of age, and to different aspects of cognitive performance. However, a comprehensive analysis of multidomain cognitive associations with hippocampal deformations among a large group of cognitively normal older adults is currently lacking. In 654 participants of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (mean age = 72.5, SD = 0.71 years), we examined associations between the morphology of the hippocampus and a variety of memory tests (spatial span, letter-number sequencing, verbal recall, and digit backwards), as well as broader cognitive domains (latent measures of speed, fluid intelligence, and memory). Following correction for age, sex, and vascular risk factors, analysis of memory subtests revealed that only right hippocampal associations in relation to spatial memory survived type 1 error correction in subiculum and in CA1 at the head (β = 0.201, p = 5.843 × 10-4, outward), and in the ventral tail section of CA1 (β = -0.272, p = 1.347 × 10-5, inward). With respect to latent measures of cognitive domains, only deformations associated with processing speed survived type 1 error correction in bilateral subiculum (βabsolute ≤ 0.247, p < 1.369 × 10-4, outward), bilaterally in the ventral tail section of CA1 (βabsolute ≤ 0.242, p < 3.451 × 10-6, inward), and a cluster at the left anterior-to-dorsal region of the head (β = 0.199, p = 5.220 × 10-6, outward). Overall, our results indicate that a complex pattern of both inward and outward hippocampal deformations are associated with better processing speed and spatial memory in older age, suggesting that complex shape-based hippocampal analyses may provide valuable information beyond gross volumetry.

Dataset Information

Engagement in Enriching Early-Life Activities Is Associated With Larger Hippocampal and Amygdala Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Publications

Engagement in Enriching Early-Life Activities Is Associated With Larger Hippocampal and Amygdala Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Similar Datasets

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