A role for nutrition in healthy brain aging

Nutritional cognitive neuroscience is an emerging interdisciplinary field of research that seeks to understand nutrition’s impact on cognition and brain health across the life span. While accumulating evidence indicates healthy cognitive aging is dependent upon both brain health and nutritional status, the relationship between nutrition, cognition, and brain structure and function remains to be elucidated. Methods that sensitively measure variability in nutritional status, cognition, and brain health are critical to clarifying the role of nutrition in healthy brain aging. This dissertation therefore employs a multidisciplinary approach that integrates cutting-edge techniques from nutritional epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience. The experiments presented herein define mediatory relationships between nutrition, cognition, and underlying brain structure and function in a sample of healthy, older adults. This research program investigates the role of nutrition in healthy brain aging, applying methods that examine: (i) specific nutrient biomarkers, and (ii) a broader profile of nutrient biomarker patterns. Chapters two through four investigate the role of individual nutrients on cognitive performance and identify specific brain regions whose structural integrity mediates this relationship. Chapters five through seven broaden the scope of this investigation to assess the role of nutrient biomarker patterns in cognition and to examine their influence of specific structural and functional brain networks. Taken together, the results of this research program suggest that specific nutrients and nutrient groups may slow or prevent aspects of age-related cognitive decline by influencing particular age-related changes in brain health. This line of research strives to elucidate the nature of healthy cognitive aging and ultimately inform clinical nutritional interventions for healthy brain aging

Nutritional Cognitive Neuroscience: Innovations for Healthy Brain Aging

Nutritional cognitive neuroscience is an emerging interdisciplinary field of research that seeks to understand nutrition’s impact on cognition and brain health across the life span. Research in this burgeoning field demonstrates that many aspects of nutrition – from entire diets to specific nutrients – affect brain structure and function, and therefore have profound implications for understanding the nature of healthy brain aging. The aim of this Focused Review is to examine recent advances in nutritional cognitive neuroscience, with an emphasis on methods that enable discovery of nutrient biomarkers that predict healthy brain aging. We propose an integrative framework that calls for the synthesis of research in nutritional epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience, incorporating: (i) methods for the precise characterization of nutritional health based on the analysis of nutrient biomarker patterns, along with (ii) modern indices of brain health derived from high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. By integrating cutting-edge techniques from nutritional epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience, nutritional cognitive neuroscience will continue to advance our understanding of the beneficial effects of nutrition on the aging brain and establish effective nutritional interventions to promote healthy brain aging

Anterior cingulate cortex mediates the relationship between O3PUFAs and executive functions in APOE e4 carriers

Introduction: Although diet has a substantial influence on the aging brain, the relationship between biomarkers of diet and aspects of brain health remains unclear. This study examines the neural mechanisms that mediate the relationship between omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (O3PUFAs) and executive functions in at-risk (APOE e4 carriers), cognitively intact older adults. We hypothesized that higher levels of O3PUFAs are associated with better performance in a particular component of the executive functions, namely cognitive flexibility, and that this relationship is mediated by gray matter volume of a specific region thought to be important for cognitive flexibility, the anterior cingulate cortex. Methods: We examined 40 cognitively intact adults between the ages of 65 and 75 with the APOE e4 polymorphism to investigate the relationship between biomarkers of O3PUFAs, tests of cognitive flexibility (measured by the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Trail Making Test), and gray matter volume within regions of the prefrontal cortex. Results: A mediation analysis revealed that gray matter volume within the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex partially mediates the relationship between O3PUFA biomarkers and cognitive flexibility. Conclusion: These results suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex acts as a mediator of the relationship between O3PUFAs and cognitive flexibility in cognitively intact adults thought to be at risk for cognitive decline. Through their link to executive functions and neuronal measures of prefrontal cortex volume, O3PUFAs show potential as a nutritional therapy to prevent dysfunction in the aging brain

Parahippocampal Cortex Mediates the Relationship between Lutein and Crystallized Intelligence in Healthy, Older Adults

Introduction: Although diet has a substantial influence on the aging brain, the relationship between dietary nutrients and aspects of brain health remains unclear. This study examines the neural mechanisms that mediate the relationship between a carotenoid important for brain health across the lifespan, lutein, and crystallized intelligence in cognitively intact older adults. We hypothesized that higher serum levels of lutein are associated with better performance on a task of crystallized intelligence, and that this relationship is mediated by gray matter structure of regions within the temporal cortex. This investigation aims to contribute to a growing line of evidence, which suggests that particular nutrients may slow or prevent aspects of cognitive decline by targeting specific features of brain aging.Methods: We examined 75 cognitively intact adults between the ages of 65 and 75 to investigate the relationship between serum lutein, tests of crystallized intelligence (measured by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence), and gray matter volume of regions within the temporal cortex. A three-step mediation analysis was implemented using multivariate linear regressions to control for age, sex, education, income, depression status, and body mass index.Results: The mediation analysis revealed that gray matter thickness of one region within the temporal cortex, the right parahippocampal cortex (Brodmann’s Area 34), partially mediates the relationship between serum lutein and crystallized intelligence. Conclusion: These results suggest that the parahippocampal cortex acts as a mediator of the relationship between serum lutein and crystallized intelligence in cognitively intact older adults. Prior findings substantiate the individual relationships reported within the mediation, specifically the links between (i) serum lutein and temporal cortex structure, (ii) serum lutein and crystallized intelligence, and (iii) parahippocampal cortex structure and crystallized intelligence. This report is the first to demonstrate a specific structural mediation between lutein status and crystallized intelligence, and therefore provides further evidence that specific nutrients may slow or prevent features of cognitive decline by hindering particular aspects of brain aging. Future work should examine the potential mechanisms underlying this mediation, including the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and membrane modulating properties of lutein