Genes, Environment, and Time: The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA)

Kremen, William S.; Thompson‐Brenner, Heather; Leung, Yat Ming J; Grant, Michael D.; Franz, Carol E.; Eisen, Seth A.; Jacobson, Kristen C.; Boake, Corwin; Lyons, Michael J.

doi:10.1375/183242706779462750

Cited by 98 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…We therefore estimated the heritability of cortical area of the GCA region. Participants in this heritability analysis were 515 middle-aged men from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA; sample 3) (Table 1) (23,42,43). The sample included 131 monozygotic and 96 dizygotic twin pairs and an additional 61 individual twins from two sites (Supporting Information).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sample for Heritability Analysis. The VETSA MRI sample used in this study is a subsample of participants from the main VETSA study, which includes a total of 1,237 male twins, of whom 534 had MRI data and for whom 19 scans did not pass quality control and were discarded, resulting in the current sample of 515 (23,42,43), aged 51-59 y. All participants gave written informed consent to be in the study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neurodevelopmental origins of lifespan changes in brain and cognition

Walhovd

Krogsrud

Amlien

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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186

182

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Neurodevelopmental origins of functional variation in older age are increasingly being acknowledged, but identification of how early factors impact human brain and cognition throughout life has remained challenging. Much focus has been on age-specific mechanisms affecting neural foundations of cognition and their change. In contrast to this approach, we tested whether cerebral correlates of general cognitive ability (GCA) in development could be extended to the rest of the lifespan, and whether early factors traceable to prenatal stages, such as birth weight and parental education, may exert continuous influences. We measured the area of the cerebral cortex in a longitudinal sample of 974 individuals aged 4-88 y (1,633 observations). An extensive cortical region was identified wherein area related positively to GCA in development. By tracking area of the cortical region identified in the child sample throughout the lifespan, we showed that the cortical change trajectories of higher and lower GCA groups were parallel through life, suggesting continued influences of early life factors. Birth weight and parental education obtained from the Norwegian Mother-Child Cohort study were identified as such early factors of possible lifelong influence. Support for a genetic component was obtained in a separate twin sample (Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging), but birth weight in the child sample had an effect on cortical area also when controlling for possible genetic differences in terms of parental height. Our results provide novel evidence for stability in brain-cognition relationships throughout life, and indicate that early life factors impact brain and cognition for the entire life course. development | aging | cortical change I t is well-established that both brain and cognition change with age, and that although there are early gains, older age brings with it decrements in aspects of both (1, 2). Much focus has been on age-specific mechanisms of neural foundations of cognition and their change (3, 4). In contrast, neurodevelopmental origins of functional variation in older age are now increasingly being acknowledged (5-8), but identification of how early factors may impact human brain and cognition throughout the lifespan has remained challenging.General cognitive ability (GCA) is essential to human beings, relates to a multitude of health and social outcomes (9), and necessarily originates in characteristics of the central nervous system at all ages. Paradoxically, even though GCA is highly vulnerable to the influence of aging, there is a remarkable stability in individuals' GCA relative to their same-age peers (10, 11). It has even been shown that childhood GCA can account for GCA-cortical thickness associations in old age (12). Cortical thickness is known to decrease with age monotonously from relatively early childhood through the entire lifespan (6,13,14). This thinning, albeit continuous, signifies different neurobiological events at different stages of life (15, 16), and does not have a stable functional correla...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurodevelopmental origins of lifespan changes in brain and cognition

Walhovd

Krogsrud

Amlien

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

186

182

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Participants were 534 middle-aged men (51-60-year-olds; M = 55.7; SD = 2.6) from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) (Kremen et al 2006(Kremen et al , 2013. After quality control, we had measures of total cortical gray matter volume and surface area and cortical thickness on 515 participants (Vuoksimaa et al 2015).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain structure mediates the association between height and cognitive ability

Vuoksimaa

Panizzon

Franz

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Height and general cognitive ability are positively associated, but the underlying mechanisms of this relationship are not well understood. Both height and general cognitive ability are positively associated with brain size. Still, the neural substrate of the height-cognitive ability association is unclear. We used a sample of 515 middle-aged male twins with structural magnetic resonance imaging data to investigate whether the association between height and cognitive ability is mediated by cortical size. In addition to cortical volume, we used genetically, ontogenetically and phylogenetically distinct cortical metrics of total cortical surface area and mean cortical thickness. Height was positively associated with general cognitive ability and total cortical volume and cortical surface area, but not with mean cortical thickness. Mediation models indicated that the wellreplicated height-general cognitive ability association is accounted for by individual differences in total cortical volume and cortical surface area (highly heritable metrics related to global brain size), and that the genetic association between cortical surface area and general cognitive ability underlies the phenotypic height-general cognitive ability relationship.

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“…The study sample consisted of participants in wave 1 of the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA), a longitudinal behavior genetic study of aging (14). Participants were male twins who were randomly drawn from the Vietnam Era Twin (VET) Registry; VET Registry twins were born between 1939 and 1957 and had both served in the United States military during the Vietnam era (1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975) (15,16).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They currently live throughout the U.S., making this a national sample. Both the larger sample and the VETSA sample are representative of American men in this age range based on U.S. census data (14).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apolipoprotein E genotype and memory in the sixth decade of life

et al. 2008

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Background-Virtually all adult studies of APOE genotypes and cognition have included individuals over 60. In older adults, ε4 carriers may manifest greater cognitive asymmetries than non-ε4 carriers even in the absence of overall mean differences. General cognitive ability may also be affected by aging and APOE genotype, but most studies have inadequately addressed this potential confound. The goals of this study were to examine, in middle age, the relationship of APOE genotype with episodic memory and verbal-visuospatial episodic memory asymmetries, after accounting for prior general cognitive ability.

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Genes, Environment, and Time: The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA)

Cited by 98 publications

References 68 publications

Neurodevelopmental origins of lifespan changes in brain and cognition

Neurodevelopmental origins of lifespan changes in brain and cognition

Brain structure mediates the association between height and cognitive ability

Apolipoprotein E genotype and memory in the sixth decade of life

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