TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebral white matter connectivity, cognition, and age-related macular degeneration
AU - Zhuang, Jie
AU - Madden, David J.
AU - Cunha, Priscila
AU - Badea, Alexandra
AU - Davis, Simon W.
AU - Potter, Guy G.
AU - Lad, Eleonora M.
AU - Cousins, Scott W.
AU - Chen, Nan Kuei
AU - Allen, Kala
AU - Maciejewski, Abigail J.
AU - Fernandez, Xuan Duong
AU - Diaz, Michele T.
AU - Whitson, Heather E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by NIH grant R01 AG043438 to HEW, R01 AG039684 to DJM, and R01 AG034138 to MTD. This manuscript has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. This research has been approved by the Duke University Medical Center Institutional Review Board. All authors have reviewed the contents of the manuscript, approved its contents, and validated the accuracy of the data. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common retina disease associated with cognitive impairment in older adults. The mechanism(s) that account for the link between AMD and cognitive decline remain unclear. Here we aim to shed light on this issue by investigating whether relationships between cognition and white matter in the brain differ by AMD status. In a direct group comparison of brain connectometry maps from diffusion weighted images, AMD patients showed significantly weaker quantitative anisotropy (QA) than healthy controls, predominantly in the splenium and left optic radiation. The QA of these tracts, however, did not correlate with the visual acuity measure, indicating that this group effect is not directly driven by visual loss. The AMD and control groups did not differ significantly in cognitive performance. Across all participants, better cognitive performance (e.g. verbal fluency) is associated with stronger connectivity strength in white matter tracts including the splenium and the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus/inferior longitudinal fasciculus. However, there were significant interactions between group and cognitive performance (verbal fluency, memory), suggesting that the relation between QA and cognitive performance was weaker in AMD patients than in controls. This may be explained by unmeasured determinants of performance that are more common or impactful in AMD or by a recruitment bias whereby the AMD group had higher cognitive reserve. In general, our findings suggest that neural degeneration in the brain might occur in parallel to AMD in the eyes, although the participants studied here do not (yet) exhibit overt cognitive declines per standard assessments.
AB - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common retina disease associated with cognitive impairment in older adults. The mechanism(s) that account for the link between AMD and cognitive decline remain unclear. Here we aim to shed light on this issue by investigating whether relationships between cognition and white matter in the brain differ by AMD status. In a direct group comparison of brain connectometry maps from diffusion weighted images, AMD patients showed significantly weaker quantitative anisotropy (QA) than healthy controls, predominantly in the splenium and left optic radiation. The QA of these tracts, however, did not correlate with the visual acuity measure, indicating that this group effect is not directly driven by visual loss. The AMD and control groups did not differ significantly in cognitive performance. Across all participants, better cognitive performance (e.g. verbal fluency) is associated with stronger connectivity strength in white matter tracts including the splenium and the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus/inferior longitudinal fasciculus. However, there were significant interactions between group and cognitive performance (verbal fluency, memory), suggesting that the relation between QA and cognitive performance was weaker in AMD patients than in controls. This may be explained by unmeasured determinants of performance that are more common or impactful in AMD or by a recruitment bias whereby the AMD group had higher cognitive reserve. In general, our findings suggest that neural degeneration in the brain might occur in parallel to AMD in the eyes, although the participants studied here do not (yet) exhibit overt cognitive declines per standard assessments.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102594
DO - 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102594
M3 - Article
C2 - 33662707
AN - SCOPUS:85101716099
VL - 30
JO - NeuroImage: Clinical
JF - NeuroImage: Clinical
SN - 2213-1582
M1 - 102594
ER -