Poster No:
931
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Dominic Padova1, Andreia Faria1, Tilak Ratnanather1, Yuri Agrawal2
Institutions:
1Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Yuri Agrawal
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora, CO
Introduction:
The mechanisms underlying the link between age-related decline in vestibular (inner ear balance) function and cognitive impairment are unknown (Bigelow, 2015; Semenov, 2016). One possible mechanism is that peripheral deafferentation leads to neuroplastic changes in the vestibular-subcortical-cortical pathways that manifest as executive and spatial cognitive impairments. To date, few, if any, studies have examined the relationships between the volumes of the vestibular-subcortical-cortical pathways and vestibular-mediated cognitive abilities (Ferrè, 2020). This cross-sectional study of 117 older adults addresses this gap by investigating whether the volumes of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, thalamus, basal ganglia, and parietal and frontal cortices structures mediate the observed relationship between age-related variations in vestibular function and cognitive ability (spatial and executive).
Methods:
We used data from 117 participants aged 60+ from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. All participants underwent vestibular testing (c/oVEMPs, vHIT), T1-weighted MRI, and cognitive testing on the same visit. Brain volumes in native space were extracted from the automated multi-atlas parcellation pipeline on MRICloud (Wu, 2023) and divided by total brain volume to achieve relative volumes. Cognitive tests of executive function included the Forward and Backward Digit Span, Trail-Making Test Part B, Category and Letter Fluency, and Clock Drawing tests. Spatial cognitive tests included the Card Rotations, Benton Visual Retention, Trail-Making Parts A and B, and Purdue Pegboard tests. To reduce mediation model complexity, separate analyses (linear and penalized multiple regressions) identified a subset of significant variables that would be used in the mediation model. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the parallel mediation model, where age and gender were covariates, peripheral vestibular function was the independent variable, relative region of interest volumes were mediators, and cognitive ability (executive, spatial) was the outcome variable. All continuous variables were z-score-transformed.
Results:
Reduced utricular and canal functions were associated with significantly better performance on the clock drawing test copy condition (CLKCopy) (p≈0.022, p≈0.016) according to permutation testing. Reduced utricular function was associated with significantly better performance on the card rotations test (CRDRot) (p≈0.006) according to permutation testing. Penalized regression found that lower volumes of the bilateral thalamus (Thalamus_L, Thalamus_R) predicted higher CLKCopy performance, and lower volumes of Thalamus_L and the left putamen (Put_L) predicted higher CRDRot performance. While the total effects of the mediation models were significant, the Thalamus_L, Thalamus_R, and Put_L volumes did not significantly mediate the effect of vestibular function on CLKCopy or CRDRot ability (p>0.05).
Conclusions:
Reduced vestibular function may lead to cognitive impairment through alterations of the shape, thickness, surface area, or white matter integrity of subcortical and cortical circuits, rather than their volumes. Future longitudinal studies are needed to explore the causal direction of the relationships between vestibular function, brain structure, and cognitive impairment. Early vestibular interventions may preserve brain structure in this focal network, thereby forestalling cognitive impairment.
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making
Higher Cognitive Functions Other
Lifespan Development:
Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Image Registration and Computational Anatomy 2
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Cortical Anatomy and Brain Mapping
Keywords:
Aging
Cognition
Cortex
STRUCTURAL MRI
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
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Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
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Was this research conducted in the United States?
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Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified?
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Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Structural MRI
Neuropsychological testing
Computational modeling
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Other, Please list
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MRICloud
Provide references using APA citation style.
1. Bigelow, R. T., & Agrawal, Y. (2015). Vestibular involvement in cognition: Visuospatial ability, attention, executive function, and memory. Journal of Vestibular Research,25(2), 73-89.
2. Ferrè, E. R., & Haggard, P. (2020). Vestibular cognition: State-of-the-art and future directions.Cognitive neuropsychology, 37(7-8), 413-420.
3. Semenov, Y. R., Bigelow, R. T., Xue, Q. L., Lac, S. D., & Agrawal, Y. (2016). Association between vestibular and cognitive function in US adults: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biomedical Sciences and Medical Sciences, 71(2), 243-250.
4. Wu, D., Mori, S. (2023). Structural Neuroimaging: From Macroscopic to Microscopic Scales. In: Thakor, N.V. (eds) Handbook of Neuroengineering. Springer, Singapore.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5540-1_84
No