Zhuang Xiaowei, Cordes Dietmar, Caldwell Jessica Z K, Bender Andrew R, Miller Justin B
Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, NV, United States.
Interdisciplinary Neuroscience PhD Program, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, United States.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2024 Oct 4;16:1465744. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1465744. eCollection 2024.
Identifying the associations between rural-living or neighborhood disadvantage and neurobiology may clarify rural-urban disparities in older adults with cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer's disease.
We examined rural-urban differences and neighborhood disadvantages in brain cortical thickness (CT) measures among 71 rural and 87 urban-dwelling older adults. Analysis of covariance was used to test each FreeSurfer-derived CT measures' associations with rural-urban living, clinical impairment status, and their interactions. Post-hoc linear regressions were used to test the association between CT measures and neighborhood disadvantage index.
Rural-dwelling older adults had thinner cortices in temporal and inferior frontal regions compared to urban participants, especially among clinically normal participants, where the thinner temporal cortex further correlated with higher neighborhood disadvantage. Conversely, rural participants had thicker cortices in superior frontal, parietal and occipital regions.
Our results suggest a complex interplay between community contexts and neurobiology. For memory-related regions, rural-living and neighborhood disadvantage might be negatively associated with subjects' brain structures.
确定农村生活或邻里劣势与神经生物学之间的关联，可能有助于阐明患有与阿尔茨海默病相关的认知障碍的老年人的城乡差异。
我们研究了71名农村老年人和87名城市老年人脑皮质厚度（CT）测量值中的城乡差异和邻里劣势。采用协方差分析来检验每个由FreeSurfer得出的CT测量值与城乡居住情况、临床损伤状态及其相互作用之间的关联。事后线性回归用于检验CT测量值与邻里劣势指数之间的关联。
与城市参与者相比，农村居住的老年人在颞叶和额下回区域的皮质更薄，尤其是在临床正常的参与者中，颞叶皮质较薄还与更高的邻里劣势相关。相反，农村参与者在额上回、顶叶和枕叶区域的皮质更厚。
我们的结果表明社区环境与神经生物学之间存在复杂的相互作用。对于与记忆相关的区域，农村生活和邻里劣势可能与受试者的脑结构呈负相关。
