| Poster | Poster Session 11 Program Schedule
02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues
Final Abstract #34
Investigating the Effect of Brain Integrity on Cognitive Function Based on Sex/Gender and Race/Ethnicity in Middle-Age
Shana Garza, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, United States
Justina Avila-Rieger, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Jennifer Manly, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Adam Brickman, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Category: Inclusion and Diversity/Multiculturalism
Keyword 1: ethnicity
Keyword 2: cognitive reserve
Objective:
Lower brain integrity including higher WMH volume, lower hippocampal volume, and cortical thinning are associated with lower cognition, yet there are many cases where people with lower brain integrity do not present lower cognitive function. There is a lack of consistency in literature as to whether the effect of brain integrity on cognitive function varies based on sex/gender and very few studies are able to determine whether these relationships differ by race and ethnicity.
Participants and Methods:
Participants were: 725 middle-aged Non-Latinx Black, Non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic women and men in the Offspring Study of Mechanisms for Racial Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease. Brain integrity measures included hippocampal volume, cortical thickness in AD signature regions, and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume. Memory and language functioning at baseline were measured via the Selective Reminding Test (immediate and delayed recall) and letter and category fluency. Regression models were estimated for each brain integrity indicator and neuropsychological outcome. In each model, an interaction term between brain integrity and sex/gender was specified to determine whether the relationship between brain integrity and cognition varied across men and women. These models were then replicated in stratified analyses across racial and ethnic groups.
Results:
Overall, hippocampal volume and cortical thickness in AD signature regions were both reliably associated with total recall (B = 3.04, 95% CI [1.573, 4.507]; B = 22.51, 95% CI [8.78, 3624]), delayed recall (B = 0.385, 95% CI [0.139, 0.631]; B = 3.794, 95% CI [1.516, 6.071]), and category fluency (B = 0.5406, 95% CI [0.169, 0.912]; B = 4.101, 95% CI [0.681, 7.521]), respectively. Greater white matter hyperintensity burden was negatively associated with total recall (B = -5.03, 95% CI [-9.06, -0.99]), and delayed recall (B = -1.0298, 95% CI [-1.685, -0.375]). Women had higher scores on delayed recall (B = 0.632, 95% CI [0.139, 1.126]), and category fluency (B = 0.768, 95% CI [0.0219, 1.514]). The positive relationship between cortical thickness and performance on category fluency was stronger for men than women (B = -9.409, 95% CI [-16.287, -2.530]). There were no other reliable interactions between sex/gender and the other brain integrity indicators. Interactions in analyses stratified by race and ethnicity were not reliable.
Conclusions:
Better category fluency scores were more tightly linked to increases in cortical thickness in men compared to women. There were no other sex/gender differences in the relationship of brain imaging indicators to cognitive outcomes, overall or within racial and ethnic groups.
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