Biology subjects

Bingly, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Bingly, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Neuroanatomical features reveal accelerated brain age in alcohol use disorder

Background/ObjectivesBrain age is a novel measure to characterize the integrity of neurocognitive functioning and brain health in various psychiatric and neurological disorders. Although there is a literature suggesting premature aging of the brain in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), studies directly examining brain age are rare. Therefore, the current study was designed to estimate brain age in AUD individuals using brain morphological features, such as cortical thickness and brain volume. MethodsThe sample included a group of 30 adult males with a history of AUD but maintaining abstinence and a group of 30 male controls without any history of AUD. Brain age was computed using an XGBoost regression model with 187 brain morphological features of cortical thickness and brain volume as predictors. An exploratory correlational analysis between brain age measures and features of neuropsychological performance, impulsivity, and alcohol consumption was also performed. ResultsFindings revealed that AUD individuals showed an increase of 1.70 years in their brain age relative to their chronological age. Further, in the AUD group, higher brain age was significantly associated with poor executive functioning, while a larger gap between brain age and actual age was associated with lower non-planning impulsivity and later age of onset for regular drinking in those with AUD. ConclusionsAUD individuals manifested accelerated brain aging, possibly representing compromised brain health. Brain age measures were found to be associated with some of the measures of neurocognition, impulsivity, and alcohol consumption. These findings may have important implications for the early identification, prevention, and treatment of AUD. However, future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Alcohol use disorder is associated with increases in frontocentral phase-amplitude coupling strength during resting state

Considerable evidence from functional neuroimaging and EEG coherence studies indicates that individuals afflicted with alcohol use disorder (AUD) manifest aberrant patterns of connectivity, particularly in frontal brain regions. Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) is another form of functional connectivity, reflecting the association between the phase at one frequency and amplitude changes at a higher frequency. Significant PAC differences have been reported for other substance use disorders, but it has not yet been investigated in AUD. We compared frontomedial PAC strength during resting state, eyes closed, in adult participants with severe AUD and age-matched unaffected controls from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). Comodulograms of PAC estimates between phase frequencies (0.1-13 Hz) and amplitude frequencies (4-50 Hz) were calculated for all participants. PAC differences between AUD and unaffected groups were assessed at each phase-amplitude frequency pair in comodulograms to identify clusters of significant test results, reporting only those clusters satisfying all validation and significance testing steps. Severe AUD was associated with clusters of significantly greater PAC in alpha-gamma domains of both men and women. Candidate clusters were found in theta-gamma domains of both sexes, but were only significant greater in men with AUD. Significant PAC clusters were found in the delta-gamma domain of both sexes, though women with AUD showed significant decreases in contrast to greater PAC found in men with AUD. The significant PAC clusters identified in this exploratory study could provide new insights into the dysregulation of brain connectivity underlying AUD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Alzheimer's subtypesA supervised, unsupervised, multimodal, multilayered embedded recursive (SUMMER) AI study

Since Alzheimers disease (AD) is a heterogeneous disease, different subtypes may have distinct biological, genetic, and clinical characteristics, requiring tailored interventions. While several proposed subtypes of AD exist, there is still no clear consensus on a definitive classification. By leveraging complementary AI approaches, including supervised and unsupervised learning, within a recursive pipeline (SUMMER) that integrates multimodal datasets encompassing MRI measurements, phenotypes, and genetic data, our goal was to generate robust scientific evidence for identifying AD subtypes. Data was downloaded from the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database and included neuroimaging data (MRI), genetics (SNPs), clinical diagnosis, and demographics. 1133 European American participants images, aged 55-95, were included in this study. The analysis was multi-fold, where the first step involved applying an unsupervised application to a subset of the MRI sample (AD + cognitively normal (CN) aged matched groups, 100 men aged 68-85 years, and 76 women aged 68-85 years). The MRI brain gray matter was segmented into 44 regions of interest (ROIs) according to a standard atlas, and 618 features were extracted, including ROI voxel intensity measurements such as minimum, maximum, and histogram variables. Results identified a cluster of subtype AD men and a cluster of subtype AD women that were distinct from the rest of their respective samples. In the next step, the integrity of the identified subtype AD clusters was investigated using the XGBoost supervised machine learning application with genetic features (SNPs, N=36,724) and labels: the identified subtype AD cluster vs. the rest of the sample, stratified by sex. A significant AD subtype men model (accuracy=0.85, F1=0.72, AUC=0.83) and a significant women AD subtype model (accuracy=0.81, F1=0.81, AUC=0.81) were built, confirming the homogeneity of the isolated AD subtype clusters. Discriminative biomarkers were extracted from the significant models, including selected ROIs and SNPs. Finally, the subtype models were tested on an unseen subset of ADNI data. The genetic-based models identified clusters of AD subtype participants consisting of 34% of the men AD group and 47% of the women AD group. Phenotypic analysis indicates that lower body weight was associated with the womens AD subtype. Complex diseases like AD demand a sophisticated, multimodal approach for precise diagnosis. Effectively identifying disease subtypes enhances the potential for personalized treatment, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

neuroscience↗