INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 11 Program Schedule 02/17/2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120) Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology \| Education/Training \| Professional Practice Issues Final Abstract #77 External Perceived Control and Brain Health: Potential Implications for Structural Inequities and Dementia Disparities Jordan Palms, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States Laura Zahodne, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States Category: Other Keyword 1: dementia - Alzheimer's disease Keyword 2: neuroimaging: structural Objective: External perceived control, or the environmental constraints an individual experiences in their life, can serve as a proxy for multiple levels of psychosocial stressors as well as larger social structural inequities. Indeed, external perceived control correlates with interpersonal and societal measures of discrimination, which have both been associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes through psychological and physiological stress pathways. External perceived control is also associated with worse cognitive outcomes and was shown to mediate racial disparities in cognition, pointing to its potential role in brain aging and dementia disparities. This study sought to evaluate the connection between external perceived control, a proxy for interpersonal and societal level stressors and constraints, with brain health. Participants and Methods: Participants were drawn from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (MCAP) which is a longitudinal study of a racially balanced and socioeconomically diverse sample of adults transitioning to later life in southeast Michigan. External perceived control was operationalized via the Perceived Constraints subscale of the self-report Perceived Control scale (e.g., “What happens in my life is often beyond my control”). Responses ranged from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree) and were reverse coded and averaged so that higher scores corresponded to greater external perceived control. Brain health outcomes were estimated by FreeSurfer v6.0. Outcomes of interest were regional cortical thickness, total gray matter volume, total white matter volume, and total white matter hypointensities. Regional cortical thickness was quantified as a composite of nine Alzheimer’s disease (AD) signature regions (Dickerson et al., 2009). These regions include the medial temporal cortex, inferior temporal gyrus, temporal pole, angular gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus, and the inferior frontal sulcus. At the time of analyses, one wave of imaging data was available, making the current study cross-sectional. A participant was excluded from analyses due to imaging artifacts, resulting in an analytic sample of 107. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to evaluate associations between external perceived control and brain health outcomes. Age, sex, race/ethnicity, and total intracranial volume were included as covariates. Results: External perceived control was negatively associated with cortical thickness in AD signature regions (β=-.26, t(100)=-2.72, p<.01) but was not associated with total gray matter volume, total cerebral white matter volume, or white matter hypointensities. Conclusions: These cross-sectional findings indicate an association between greater external perceived control and less cortical thickness in brain regions that are most vulnerable to neurodegeneration in early AD. This provides evidence of a potential negative impact of social structural inequities on brain health. Given that external perceived control and the social structural inequities it reflects are racially patterned, future work should investigate whether perceived control mediates racial disparities in brain health. External perceived control could be used as a proxy when direct measures of structural inequity are not available. Moving forward, it is essential to incorporate direct measures of structural inequities into models of external perceived control and modifiable health behaviors to characterize multiple points of intervention to reduce brain health disparities and the risk of AD.

Poster

02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)

Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues

Final Abstract #77

External Perceived Control and Brain Health: Potential Implications for Structural Inequities and Dementia Disparities

Jordan Palms, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Laura Zahodne, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States

Category: Other

Keyword 1: dementia - Alzheimer's disease
Keyword 2: neuroimaging: structural

Objective:

External perceived control, or the environmental constraints an individual experiences in their life, can serve as a proxy for multiple levels of psychosocial stressors as well as larger social structural inequities. Indeed, external perceived control correlates with interpersonal and societal measures of discrimination, which have both been associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes through psychological and physiological stress pathways. External perceived control is also associated with worse cognitive outcomes and was shown to mediate racial disparities in cognition, pointing to its potential role in brain aging and dementia disparities. This study sought to evaluate the connection between external perceived control, a proxy for interpersonal and societal level stressors and constraints, with brain health.

Participants and Methods:

Participants were drawn from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (MCAP) which is a longitudinal study of a racially balanced and socioeconomically diverse sample of adults transitioning to later life in southeast Michigan. External perceived control was operationalized via the Perceived Constraints subscale of the self-report Perceived Control scale (e.g., “What happens in my life is often beyond my control”). Responses ranged from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree) and were reverse coded and averaged so that higher scores corresponded to greater external perceived control. Brain health outcomes were estimated by FreeSurfer v6.0. Outcomes of interest were regional cortical thickness, total gray matter volume, total white matter volume, and total white matter hypointensities. Regional cortical thickness was quantified as a composite of nine Alzheimer’s disease (AD) signature regions (Dickerson et al., 2009). These regions include the medial temporal cortex, inferior temporal gyrus, temporal pole, angular gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus, and the inferior frontal sulcus. At the time of analyses, one wave of imaging data was available, making the current study cross-sectional. A participant was excluded from analyses due to imaging artifacts, resulting in an analytic sample of 107. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to evaluate associations between external perceived control and brain health outcomes. Age, sex, race/ethnicity, and total intracranial volume were included as covariates.

Results:

External perceived control was negatively associated with cortical thickness in AD signature regions (β=-.26, t(100)=-2.72, p<.01) but was not associated with total gray matter volume, total cerebral white matter volume, or white matter hypointensities.

Conclusions:

These cross-sectional findings indicate an association between greater external perceived control and less cortical thickness in brain regions that are most vulnerable to neurodegeneration in early AD. This provides evidence of a potential negative impact of social structural inequities on brain health. Given that external perceived control and the social structural inequities it reflects are racially patterned, future work should investigate whether perceived control mediates racial disparities in brain health. External perceived control could be used as a proxy when direct measures of structural inequity are not available. Moving forward, it is essential to incorporate direct measures of structural inequities into models of external perceived control and modifiable health behaviors to characterize multiple points of intervention to reduce brain health disparities and the risk of AD.