Nabizadeh Fardin
Neuroscience Research Group (NRG), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran.
School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Neurol Lett. 2023 Apr;2(1):35-41. doi: 10.52547/nl.2.1.35. Epub 2022 Apr 15.
According to a large number of scientific reports, the main problem is COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy which slowed down the vaccination program. Previous studies revealed that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is associated with lower cognitive performance. However, the neurobiology of such behavior is less known, and investigating the brain structural patterns in this regard can extend our knowledge on the basis of this behavior. This study aimed to investigate the link between brain structural features including cortical and subcortical volume with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in elderly individuals.
A total of 221 healthy subjects without any cognitive impairment with a mean age of 63.7 ± 6.1 were obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. Overall, 87 vaccine-hesitant (VH) and 134 vaccine-accepted (VA) were entered into this study. The difference in the volume of cortical and subcortical regions was investigated between VH and VA groups.
There was no significant difference in cognitive status measured by MMSE, MoCA, ADAS-cog, and RAVLT between VA and VH groups (>0.05). The analysis showed that VA subjects had significantly higher left pars orbitalis (: 0.013), left precentral (: 0.042), right caudal anterior cingulate (: 0.044), and right isthmus cingulate (: 0.013) volume compared to the VH group. There was no significant difference in other cortical and subcortical regions.
In conclusion, this finding demonstrated that in the era of complicated decision-making due to social media reports, elderly adults with smaller frontal and cingulate regions are more likely to be vaccine-hesitant. These findings can highlight the link between cortical regions and health-protective behaviors such as taking up the offer of vaccination.
根据大量科学报告，主要问题是新冠疫苗犹豫，这减缓了疫苗接种计划。先前的研究表明，新冠疫苗犹豫与较低的认知表现有关。然而，这种行为的神经生物学机制鲜为人知，研究这方面的脑结构模式可以在此行为基础上扩展我们的知识。本研究旨在调查老年人脑结构特征（包括皮质和皮质下体积）与新冠疫苗犹豫之间的联系。
从阿尔茨海默病神经影像学倡议（ADNI）数据库中选取了221名无任何认知障碍、平均年龄为63.7±6.1岁的健康受试者。总体而言，87名疫苗犹豫者（VH）和134名疫苗接受者（VA）进入本研究。研究了VH组和VA组之间皮质和皮质下区域体积的差异。
VA组和VH组在MMSE、MoCA、ADAS-cog和RAVLT测量的认知状态方面无显著差异（>0.05）。分析表明，与VH组相比，VA组受试者的左侧眶部（：0.013）、左侧中央前回（：0.042）、右侧尾侧前扣带回（：0.044）和右侧扣带回峡部（：0.013）体积显著更大。其他皮质和皮质下区域无显著差异。
总之本研究结果表明，在社交媒体报道导致决策复杂的时代，额叶和扣带回区域较小的老年人更有可能对疫苗持犹豫态度。这些发现可以突出皮质区域与诸如接受疫苗接种提议等健康保护行为之间的联系。
