Cardiovascular risks and brain function: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of executive function in older adults

Abstract

Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia are associated with cognitive impairment and risk of dementia in older adults. However, the mechanisms linking them are not clear. This study aims to investigate the association between aggregate CV risk, assessed by the Framingham general cardiovascular risk profile, and functional brain activation in a group of community-dwelling older adults. Sixty participants (mean age: 64.6 years) from the Brain Health Study, a nested study of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging using the Flanker task. We found that participants with higher CV risk had greater task-related activation in the left inferior parietal region, and this increased activation was associated with poorer task performance. Our results provide insights into the neural systems underlying the relationship between CV risk and executive function. Increased activation of the inferior parietal region may offer a pathway through which CV risk increases risk for cognitive impairment.

Cognitive function and left ventricular assist device implantation

“…Importantly, however, increased cardiovascular risk (evaluated per the Framingham cardiovascular risk profile) is associated with impaired cerebral blood flow in the orbitofrontal, medial frontal, and anterior cingulate regions. 33 In patients with chronic heart failure, cerebral blood flow, when measured via single-photon emission CT with 133 Xe inhalation, was 31% lower than in healthy controls. Cerebral blood flow rapidly normalized to baseline levels following cardiac transplantation in these patients.…”

Apathy and noradrenaline

“…The evidence suggests PD-MCI's neural footprint remains difficult to delineate even with various imaging measures, though neurovascular abnormalities emerge as strong causal candidates. Neurovascular differences indeed correlate with MCI in other patient populations [33][34][35][36]. The studies above do not show a distinct link between dopamine and PD-MCI, but they do yield an array of diffuse neural correlates, which may reflect the fuzzy nature of MCI's behavioral characterization.…”

Aerobic exercise promotes executive functions and impacts functional neural activity among older adults with vascular cognitive impairment

“…It is very likely that our participants were frailer than those included in Colcombe’s study. Due to the cognitive status of our study participants, we used a modified flanker task28 that visually cued participants to the central arrow to lower the demand of the task. In turn, this could minimise recruitment of regions underlying response inhibition.…”

“…Participants viewed a series of five arrows with a boxed central arrow cue flanked by a pair of arrows on either side. This modification was included to reduce cognitive demand given the study population 28. In half of the trials, the flanking arrows pointed in the same direction as the central arrow cue (eg, < < < < <; congruent condition).…”