Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects
Vitamin B12, folate, and homocysteine are implicated in pivotal neurodegenerative mechanisms and partake in elders’ mental decline. Findings on the association between vitamin-related biochemistry and cognitive abilities suggest that the structural and functional properties of the brain may represen...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Neural Plasticity |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6874805 |
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| author | Luca Cecchetti Giada Lettieri Giacomo Handjaras Andrea Leo Emiliano Ricciardi Pietro Pietrini Silvia Pellegrini The Train the Brain Consortium |
| author_facet | Luca Cecchetti Giada Lettieri Giacomo Handjaras Andrea Leo Emiliano Ricciardi Pietro Pietrini Silvia Pellegrini The Train the Brain Consortium |
| author_sort | Luca Cecchetti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Vitamin B12, folate, and homocysteine are implicated in pivotal neurodegenerative mechanisms and partake in elders’ mental decline. Findings on the association between vitamin-related biochemistry and cognitive abilities suggest that the structural and functional properties of the brain may represent an intermediate biomarker linking vitamin concentrations to cognition. Despite this, no previous study directly investigated whether vitamin B12, folate, and homocysteine levels are sufficient to explain individual neuropsychological profiles or, alternatively, whether the activity of brain regions modulated by these compounds better predicts cognition in elders. Here, we measured the relationship between vitamin blood concentrations, scores at seventeen neuropsychological tests, and brain activity of sixty-five elders spanning from normal to Mild Cognitive Impairment. We then evaluated whether task-related brain responses represent an intermediate phenotype, providing a better prediction of subjects’ neuropsychological scores, as compared to the one obtained considering blood biochemistry only. We found that the hemodynamic activity of the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was positively associated (p value<0.05 cluster corrected) with vitamin B12 concentrations, suggesting that elders with higher B12 levels had a more pronounced recruitment of this salience network region. Crucially, the activity of this area significantly predicted subjects’ visual search and attention abilities (p value=0.0023), whereas B12 levels per se failed to do so. Our results demonstrate that the relationship between blood biochemistry and elders’ cognitive abilities is revealed when brain activity is included into the equation, thus highlighting the role of brain imaging as intermediate phenotype. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-57cfbb54b1a44cb39780162debc43a16 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2090-5904 1687-5443 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Neural Plasticity |
| spelling | doaj-art-57cfbb54b1a44cb39780162debc43a162025-02-03T01:07:01ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432019-01-01201910.1155/2019/68748056874805Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired SubjectsLuca Cecchetti0Giada Lettieri1Giacomo Handjaras2Andrea Leo3Emiliano Ricciardi4Pietro Pietrini5Silvia Pellegrini6The Train the Brain Consortium7MoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyMoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyMoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyMoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyMoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyMoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, ItalyDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, ItalyInstitute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56100 Pisa, ItalyVitamin B12, folate, and homocysteine are implicated in pivotal neurodegenerative mechanisms and partake in elders’ mental decline. Findings on the association between vitamin-related biochemistry and cognitive abilities suggest that the structural and functional properties of the brain may represent an intermediate biomarker linking vitamin concentrations to cognition. Despite this, no previous study directly investigated whether vitamin B12, folate, and homocysteine levels are sufficient to explain individual neuropsychological profiles or, alternatively, whether the activity of brain regions modulated by these compounds better predicts cognition in elders. Here, we measured the relationship between vitamin blood concentrations, scores at seventeen neuropsychological tests, and brain activity of sixty-five elders spanning from normal to Mild Cognitive Impairment. We then evaluated whether task-related brain responses represent an intermediate phenotype, providing a better prediction of subjects’ neuropsychological scores, as compared to the one obtained considering blood biochemistry only. We found that the hemodynamic activity of the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was positively associated (p value<0.05 cluster corrected) with vitamin B12 concentrations, suggesting that elders with higher B12 levels had a more pronounced recruitment of this salience network region. Crucially, the activity of this area significantly predicted subjects’ visual search and attention abilities (p value=0.0023), whereas B12 levels per se failed to do so. Our results demonstrate that the relationship between blood biochemistry and elders’ cognitive abilities is revealed when brain activity is included into the equation, thus highlighting the role of brain imaging as intermediate phenotype.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6874805 |
| spellingShingle | Luca Cecchetti Giada Lettieri Giacomo Handjaras Andrea Leo Emiliano Ricciardi Pietro Pietrini Silvia Pellegrini The Train the Brain Consortium Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects Neural Plasticity |
| title | Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects |
| title_full | Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects |
| title_fullStr | Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects |
| title_full_unstemmed | Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects |
| title_short | Brain Hemodynamic Intermediate Phenotype Links Vitamin B12 to Cognitive Profile of Healthy and Mild Cognitive Impaired Subjects |
| title_sort | brain hemodynamic intermediate phenotype links vitamin b12 to cognitive profile of healthy and mild cognitive impaired subjects |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6874805 |
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