Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, University of Oslo, Blindern, POB1094, 0317, Oslo, Norway.
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 16;12(1):13886. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-17727-6.
Higher general cognitive ability (GCA) is associated with lower risk of neurodegenerative disorders, but neural mechanisms are unknown. GCA could be associated with more cortical tissue, from young age, i.e. brain reserve, or less cortical atrophy in adulthood, i.e. brain maintenance. Controlling for education, we investigated the relative association of GCA with reserve and maintenance of cortical volume, -area and -thickness through the adult lifespan, using multiple longitudinal cognitively healthy brain imaging cohorts (n = 3327, 7002 MRI scans, baseline age 20-88 years, followed-up for up to 11 years). There were widespread positive relationships between GCA and cortical characteristics (level-level associations). In select regions, higher baseline GCA was associated with less atrophy over time (level-change associations). Relationships remained when controlling for polygenic scores for both GCA and education. Our findings suggest that higher GCA is associated with cortical volumes by both brain reserve and -maintenance mechanisms through the adult lifespan.
较高的一般认知能力（GCA）与神经退行性疾病的风险较低有关，但神经机制尚不清楚。GCA 可能与年轻时更多的皮质组织有关，即大脑储备，或成年后较少的皮质萎缩有关，即大脑维持。在控制教育的情况下，我们通过多个纵向认知健康脑成像队列（n=3327，7002 次 MRI 扫描，基线年龄 20-88 岁，随访时间长达 11 年），研究了 GCA 与皮质体积、面积和厚度储备和维持的相对关联。GCA 与皮质特征之间存在广泛的正相关关系（水平-水平关联）。在一些特定区域，较高的基线 GCA 与随时间的萎缩程度较低有关（水平变化关联）。当同时控制 GCA 和教育的多基因评分时，这些关系仍然存在。我们的研究结果表明，较高的 GCA 通过大脑储备和维持机制与整个成年期的皮质体积有关。
