Recent studyThe scientists investigated the relationship between three indicators known to independently predict healthy aging: nutritional intake, brain structure, and cognitive function. Their analysis adds to the evidence that these factors jointly contribute to brain health in older adults.
The study, reported in the journal Nutrition, found that blood markers of two types of saturated fatty acids, as well as specific omega-6, 7 and 9 fatty acids, correlated with improved scores on memory tests and larger brain structures in the frontal, temporal, parietal and insular cortices.
While other studies have found one-to-one relationships between individual nutrients or classes of nutrients and specific brain regions or functions, few studies have comprehensively looked at brain health, cognition and broader dietary patterns across the board, said Alon Barbey, a professor of psychology, bioengineering and neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the study with postdoctoral researcher Tanvir Talukder and psychology researcher Chris Zwilling. All three co-authors are affiliated with the University of Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
“Our findings reveal that, using nutritional biomarkers, cognitive tests and MRI measures of brain structure, we can explain much of the variance in healthy aging,” Barbey said. “This will allow us to better understand how nutrition influences health, aging and disease.”
The researchers collected data from 111 healthy older adults using MRI structural scans, blood-based biomarkers for 52 dietary nutrients, and cognitive performance on tests of memory and intelligence. By combining these measures using a data fusion approach, the team found associations between dozens of characteristics that appear to work in concert to promote brain and cognitive health in older adults.
Data fusion allows researchers to look at multiple data sets to map traits or characteristics that have common patterns of variation, Talukdar said, and he has adapted the method to incorporate nutritional, cognitive and brain volume data.
“We’re looking at all these relationships together,” he says, “which allows us to identify specific features that cluster together.”
This overcomes some of the limitations of analyzing individual factors, Barbey said.
“If we only look at nutrition in relation to brain structure and not cognition, or only look at nutrition in relation to cognition and not the brain, then we’re actually missing some very important information.”
The most telling features emerging from the new analysis were larger grey matter volumes in the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes, performance on tests of auditory memory, short-term and long-term memory, and blood markers associated with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid intake. Study participants who scored higher on memory tests tended to have larger grey matter volumes and higher levels of omega-6, 7 and 9 fatty acid markers in their blood. Those who performed poorly on cognitive tests also had smaller grey matter volumes in these brain regions and lower levels of these dietary markers, the analysis found.
While the study only highlights links between these factors and does not prove that diet directly promotes brain health, the researchers say it adds to the growing body of evidence that nutrition is key to healthy aging.
“Our study opens the door to a more comprehensive view of healthy aging,” said Zwilling. It gives insight into the importance of diet and nutrition and the value of data fusion methods to study their contribution to the neuroscience of adult development and aging.”
This research was supported by a grant from Abbott Nutrition through the University of Illinois Center for Nutrition, Learning and Memory.
Attached Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VodZWznDxuw
