Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, 760 Westwood Plaza, Suite 28-224, Los Angeles, 90095, USA.
Department of Statistics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2020 Jul;225(6):1705-1717. doi: 10.1007/s00429-020-02083-w. Epub 2020 May 30.
Changes in neurovascular coupling are associated with both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia in later life, but this may be confounded by cerebrovascular risk. We hypothesized that hemodynamic latency would be associated with reduced cognitive functioning across the lifespan, holding constant demographic and cerebrovascular risk. In 387 adults aged 18-85 (mean = 48.82), dynamic causal modeling was used to estimate the hemodynamic response function in the left and right V1 and V3-ventral regions of the visual cortex in response to a simple checkerboard block design stimulus with minimal cognitive demands. The hemodynamic latency (transit time) in the visual cortex was used to predict general cognitive ability (Full-Scale IQ), controlling for demographic variables (age, race, education, socioeconomic status) and cerebrovascular risk factors (hypertension, alcohol use, smoking, high cholesterol, BMI, type 2 diabetes, cardiac disorders). Increased hemodynamic latency in the visual cortex predicted reduced cognitive function (p < 0.05), holding constant demographic and cerebrovascular risk. Increased alcohol use was associated with reduced overall cognitive function (Full Scale IQ 2.8 pts, p < 0.05), while cardiac disorders (Full Scale IQ 3.3 IQ pts; p < 0.05), high cholesterol (Full Scale IQ 3.9 pts; p < 0.05), and years of education (2 IQ pts/year; p < 0.001) were associated with higher general cognitive ability. Increased hemodynamic latency was associated with reduced executive functioning (p < 0.05) as well as reductions in verbal concept formation (p < 0.05) and the ability to synthesize and analyze abstract visual information (p < 0.01). Hemodynamic latency is associated with reduced cognitive ability across the lifespan, independently of other demographic and cerebrovascular risk factors. Vascular health may predict cognitive ability long before the onset of dementias.
神经血管耦合的变化与老年期的阿尔茨海默病和血管性痴呆都有关，但这可能因脑血管风险而变得复杂。我们假设，在保持人口统计学和脑血管风险不变的情况下，血液动力学潜伏期与整个生命周期的认知功能降低有关。在 387 名年龄在 18-85 岁之间的成年人（平均年龄=48.82 岁）中，使用动态因果建模来估计左、右 V1 和 V3-腹侧视觉皮层对简单棋盘块设计刺激的血液动力学反应函数，这种刺激只需要最低限度的认知需求。使用视觉皮层的血液动力学潜伏期（传递时间）来预测一般认知能力（全量表智商），控制人口统计学变量（年龄、种族、教育、社会经济地位）和脑血管危险因素（高血压、饮酒、吸烟、高胆固醇、BMI、2 型糖尿病、心脏疾病）。视觉皮层中血液动力学潜伏期的增加预示着认知功能的降低（p<0.05），而人口统计学和脑血管风险则保持不变。饮酒量的增加与整体认知功能的降低有关（全量表智商降低 2.8 分，p<0.05），而心脏疾病（全量表智商降低 3.3 分；p<0.05）、高胆固醇（全量表智商降低 3.9 分；p<0.05）和受教育年限（每年增加 2 个智商分；p<0.001）与较高的一般认知能力有关。血液动力学潜伏期的增加与执行功能的降低有关（p<0.05），以及言语概念形成能力的降低（p<0.05）和综合分析抽象视觉信息的能力的降低（p<0.01）。血液动力学潜伏期与整个生命周期的认知能力降低有关，与其他人口统计学和脑血管风险因素无关。血管健康可能在痴呆症发病前很久就预测认知能力。
