Psychosocial behavioral phenotypes of racially/ethnically minoritized older adults enrolled in HABS-HD differ on neuroimaging measures of brain age gap, hippocampal volume, and cortical thickness.

INTRODUCTION

This study examined whether previously identified psychosocial behavioral phenotypes differed on structural neuroimaging markers.

METHODS

Latent profile analysis (LPA) employed in a sample of 1820 community-dwelling older adults (1118 Hispanic and 702 Black) replicated previous Low Resource/Low Distress, High Resource/Low Distress, and Low Resource/High Distress phenotype classifications. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) adjusting for relevant factors examined phenotype differences on neuroimaging outcomes of predicted brain age gap (BAG) (DeepBrainNet Age - Age), hippocampal volume, and cortical thickness of a meta-temporal region of interest.

RESULTS

The Low Resource/Low Distress and Low Resource/High Distress phenotypes had significantly higher predicted BAGs relative to the High Resource/Low Distress phenotype, and the Low Resource/High Distress group displayed significantly lower hippocampal volumes and meta-temporal cortical thickness relative to High Resource/Low Distress phenotype.

DISCUSSION

Results highlight there are neurostructural variations across psychosocial behavioral phenotypes and indicate the Low Resource/High Distress group may be at risk for ADRD.

HIGHLIGHTS

Brain age gap (BAG), hippocampal volumes, and cortical thickness differences were tested.The High Resource/Low Distress phenotype had the most favorable imaging outcomes.The Low Resource/High Distress phenotype demonstrated the poorest imaging outcomes.Risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) may differ across psychosocial behavioral phenotypes.