Preventive and Predictive Neurology

The American Academy of Neurology has recently changed its mission statement to emphasize prediction and prevention of neurological disease, aka “brain health”. Specific medical and lifestyle factors contribute to cognitive and brain aging, and evidence-based actionable interventions are available. Scientific research continues to elucidate more and more of the cellular and molecular biology of brain aging, particularly neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation, as well as its cognitive and systems neurobiology. Yet, it remains unclear how observed brain changes relate to cognition. Further, although specific risk factors are known to impact the structural and functional brain networks needed for cognition, scientists and clinicians do not yet know which are the most impactful, and how they might interact in producing brain aging.

We propose to quantify the multivariate relationship between brain aging risk factors and brain networks. We hypothesize that a specific set of medical and lifestyle risk factors will affect the structure and functional organization of the brain networks involved when older adults are engaged in movie watching. With information about the impact of demographic (e.g., education), medical (e.g., hypertension, diabetes), and lifestyle (e.g., exercise, diet, sleep, social connectedness) factors on brain subnetworks (e.g., integration, segregation), we anticipate subsequent diagnostic and treatment research on the factors, network changes, and interventions.