Dietary Factors and Neuroimaging Markers

描述（由申请人提供）：随着婴儿潮一代接近65岁，促进健康的大脑衰老越来越受到老龄化人口的关注。越来越多的观察性研究证据表明，饮食因素可能与老年人患神经系统疾病（包括脑血管疾病和认知能力下降）的风险有关，因此饮食管理受到了极大的关注。众所周知，许多与衰老有关的神经系统疾病都是由于亚临床大脑变化而发展起来的。这些大脑变化现在可以用核磁共振成像来可视化和量化；因此，大脑变化的核磁共振标记物值得考虑，以更好地了解饮食和大脑衰老之间的关系。神经成像标记是对衰老大脑变化的极其敏感的测量，也可以帮助我们更好地了解饮食的不同方面与大脑功能障碍的特定变化之间的联系。目前关于老年人饮食和神经影像学标志物之间关系的文献非常少。特别是饮食模式和神经影像学指标的纵向变化很少被研究。我们之前的研究表明，地中海型饮食的高依从性与亚临床脑梗死患病率较低有关，但与白质高强度无关，这强调了探索饮食模式和多种成像标记的价值。这项研究的总体目的是研究饮食因素与MRI成像中看到的大脑变化之间的关系。具体来说，拟议的研究将通过一系列研究来检验饮食因素（包括个人营养和饮食模式）与大脑神经影像学变化（包括通过体积和皮质厚度测量的整体和局部脑萎缩、白质高强度、亚临床脑梗死）之间的关系，包括：在指导阶段，(1)利用华盛顿高地Inwood Columbia Aging Project (which) -II成像研究的数据，对基线饮食因素与上述神经成像标志物之间的关系进行横断面研究；在独立阶段，(2)对基线饮食与反复进行影像学评估的一部分参加wisap - ii影像学研究的参与者的这些影像学标志物变化之间的关系进行纵向研究，(3)基于正在进行的wisap -2010影像学研究的数据进行横断面复制研究，以检验研究结果的可重复性。(4)基于正在进行的一项成像研究的数据进行横断面探索性研究，以探索饮食与在该研究中收集的另外两个MRI标记物——脑血流量和脑连通性之间的关系。这项研究的发现将有助于我们理解饮食因素在脑衰老成像标志物中的作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Promoting healthy brain aging is of increasing concern to an aging population as the baby boom generation approaches age 65. Dietary management has received a great deal of interest as mounting evidence from observational studies suggests dietary factors may be associated with the risk of developing neurological diseases, including cerebrovascular diseases and cognitive decline, in the elderly. Many of the neurological diseases of aging are known to develop as a result of subclinical brain changes. These brain changes can now be visualized and quantified using MRI; therefore MRI markers of brain changes are worth being considered to better understand the association between diet and brain aging. Neuroimaging markers are extremely sensitive measurements of changes occurring in the aging brain, and can also help us understand better the associations of different aspects of diet with specific changes of brain dysfunction. Current literature on the associations between diet and neuroimaging markers in the elderly has been extremely sparse. In particular, dietary patterns and longitudinal change of neuroimaging marker have been rarely investigated. Our previous work shows that higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet was associated with lower prevalence of subclinical brain infarcts but not white matter hyperintensity, emphasizing the value of exploring dietary patterns and multiple imaging markers. The overall aim of this study is to examine how dietary factors are related with brain changes seen on MRI imaging. Specifically, the proposed study will examine the association between dietary factors (both individual nutrients and dietary patterns) and neuroimaging changes of the brain (including global and regional brain atrophy measured by volume and cortical thickness, white matter hyperintensity, subclinical brain infarcts) through a series of studies including: during the mentored phase, (1) a cross-sectional study of the relationship between baseline dietary factors and above-mentioned neuroimaging markers using data from the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP) -II Imaging Study; and during the independent phase, (2) a longitudinal study of the association between baseline diet and change of these imaging markers in a subset of WHICAP-II Imaging Study participants who have repeated imaging evaluations, (3) a cross-sectional replication study based on data from an on-going WHICAP-2010 Imaging Study to examine the reproducibility of the study (1) findings, and (4) a cross-sectional exploratory study based on data from an on-going WHICAP-2010 Imaging Study to explore the relationship between diet and two additional MRI markers collected in WHICAP-2010, cerebral blood flow and brain connectivity. Findings from this study will contribute to our understanding of the role of dietary factors in imaging markers of brain aging.