A newly devised 'brain clock' developed by researchers can assess if a person's brain is aging faster than expected for their chronological age. The study, published in Nature Medicine on August 26, shows that factors like air pollution, socioeconomic inequality, and gender disparities significantly influence brain aging.
Key findings from the study include:
Impact of Inequality: People living in countries with high socioeconomic inequality, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, had larger gaps between their brain age and chronological age. Structural inequalities, air pollution, and health disparities are believed to be contributing factors.
Gender Differences: Women in countries with higher gender inequality showed larger brain-age gaps than men in those same countries.
Link to Dementia: Individuals with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia had larger brain-age gaps compared to those with mild cognitive impairment or healthy controls.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity and compute functional connectivity. These data were input into deep-learning models to predict brain age. The 'brain-age gap' represents the difference between chronological age and brain age, as estimated from the models. The study also highlighted that variations in brain-aging patterns could potentially lead to personalized medicine approaches considering global biological diversity.
Next Steps: Ibáñez's team is now comparing brain-age gaps in groups from different nations and adding data from 'epigenetic' clocks to further investigate these patterns. Their goal is to enhance personalized medicine by better understanding how diverse environmental and biological factors impact brain health worldwide.