Brain age relates to early life factors but not to accelerated brain aging

Vidal-Pineiro, D.; Wang, Y.; Krogsrud, S. K.; Amlien, I. K.; Baare, W. F.; Bartres-Faz, D.; Bertram, L.; Brandmaier, A. M.; Drevon, C. A.; Duzel, S.; Ebmeier, K. P.; Henson, R. N.; Junque, C.; Kievit, R.; Kuhn, S.; Leonardsen, E.; Lindenberger, U.; Madsen, K. S.; Magnussen, F.; Mowinckel, A. M.; Nyberg, L.; Roe, J. M.; Segura, B.; Sorensen, O.; Suri, S.; Zsoldos, E.; AIBL,; Walhovd, K. B.; Fjell, A. M.

doi:10.1101/2021.02.08.428915

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.02.08.428915

Brain age relates to early life factors but not to accelerated brain aging

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Abstract

Brain age is a widely used index for quantifying individuals brain health as deviation from a normative brain aging trajectory. Higher than expected brain age is thought partially to reflect above-average rate of brain aging. We explicitly tested this assumption in two large datasets and found no association between cross-sectional brain age and steeper brain decline measured longitudinally. Rather, brain age in adulthood was associated with early-life influences indexed by birth weight and polygenic scores. The results call for nuanced interpretations of cross-sectional indices of the aging brain and question their validity as markers of ongoing within-person changes of the aging brain. Longitudinal imaging data should be preferred whenever the goal is to understand individual change trajectories of brain and cognition in aging.

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Vidal-Pineiro, D., Wang, Y., Krogsrud, S. K., Amlien, I. K., Baare, W. F., Bartres-Faz, D., Bertram, L., Brandmaier, A. M., Drevon, C. A., Duzel, S., Ebmeier, K. P., Henson, R. N., Junque, C., Kievit, R., Kuhn, S., Leonardsen, E., Lindenberger, U., Madsen, K. S., Magnussen, F., Mowinckel, A. M., Nyberg, L., Roe, J. M., Segura, B., Sorensen, O., Suri, S., Zsoldos, E., AIBL,, Walhovd, K. B., Fjell, A. M.. 2021-02-08. Brain age relates to early life factors but not to accelerated brain aging. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.08.428915

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