Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan: a cross-sectional pooled mega analysis

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12-87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS – or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between cortical thickness and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research

Cortical Thickness and Resting State Cardiac Function Across the Lifespan: A Cross-Sectional Pooled Mega Analysis

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12-87)). Findings suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in prefrontal CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS. Nonetheless, in the absence of longitudinal data, alternative explanations need to be considered. Findings reveal an important association between cortical thickness and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity

Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan: A cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12–87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS—or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between CT and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research

International Large Detector: Interim Design Report

The ILD detector is proposed for an electron-positron collider with collision centre-of-mass energies from 90~\GeV~to about 1~\TeV. It has been developed over the last 10 years by an international team of scientists with the goal to design and eventually propose a fully integrated detector, primarily for the International Linear Collider, ILC. In this report the fundamental ideas and concepts behind the ILD detector are discussed and the technologies needed for the realisation of the detector are reviewed. The document starts with a short review of the science goals of the ILC, and how the goals can be achieved today with the detector technologies at hand. After a discussion of the ILC and the environment in which the experiment will take place, the detector is described in more detail, including the status of the development of the technologies foreseen for each subdetector. The integration of the different sub-systems into an integrated detector is discussed, as is the interface between the detector and the collider. This is followed by a concise summary of the benchmarking which has been performed in order to find an optimal balance between performance and cost. To the end the costing methodology used by ILD is presented, and an updated cost estimate for the detector is presented. The report closes with a summary of the current status and of planned future actions

The ILD detector at the ILC

The International Large Detector, ILD, is a detector concept which has been developed for the electron-positron collider ILC. The detector has been optimized for precision physics in a range of energies between 90 GeV and 1 TeV. ILD features a high precision, large volume combined silicon and gaseous tracking system, together with a high granularity calorimeter, all inside a 3.5 T solenoidal magnetic field. The paradigm of particle flow has been the guiding principle of the design of ILD. In this document the required performance of the detector, the proposed implementation and the readiness of the different technologies needed for the implementation are discussed. This is done in the framework of the ILC collider proposal, now under consideration in Japan, and includes site specific aspects needed to build and operate the detector at the proposed ILC site in Japan