Kathrine S Madsen
Profile Url: kathrine-s-madsen
Researcher at Copenhagen University Hospital
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Brain age is an influential index for quantifying brain health, assumed partially to reflect the rate of brain aging. We explicitly tested this assumption in two large datasets and found no association between cross-sectional brain age and steeper brain decline. Rather, brain age in adulthood was associated with early-life influences indexed by birth weight and polygenic scores. The results call for nuanced interpretations of cross-sectional indices of the aging brain.
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Socio-economic status (SES) has been proposed to have facilitating and protective effects on brain and cognition. Here we show that relationships between SES, brain volumes and general cognitive ability differ significantly across European and US cohorts (4-97 years, N â 500,000; 54,000 with brain imaging). Education was positively related to intracranial (ICV) and total brain gray matter (GM) volume. Income was related to ICV, but not GM. Relationships varied significantly across samples, and SES was more strongly related to brain and cognition in US than European cohorts. Differences in neuroanatomical volumes explained part of the SES-cognition relationships. SES was more strongly related to ICV than to GM, implying that SES-cognition relations in adulthood are less likely grounded in neuroprotective effects on GM volume in aging. Rather, a relationship may be established early in life. The findings underscore that SES has no uniform association with, or impact on, brain and cognition. ### Competing Interest Statement Christian A Drevon is a cofounder, stock-owner, board member and consultant in the contract laboratory Vitas AS, performing personalized analyses of blood biomarkers. None of the other authors declare competing interests.