Publications by authors named "Alexa Beiser"
Introduction: Diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS) index was proposed for assessing glymphatic clearance function. This study evaluated DTI-ALPS as a biomarker for cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) related vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).
Methods: Four independent cohorts were examined.
Introduction: We investigated whether depression modified the associations between sleep duration and cognitive performance.
Methods: Multivariable linear regression models examined the associations between sleep duration and cognition in 1,853 dementia- and stroke-free participants from the Framingham Heart Study. Participants were categorized in four groups: no depressive symptoms, no antidepressants; depressive symptoms without antidepressants use; antidepressant use without depressive symptoms; both depressive symptoms and antidepressant use.
Background: Nutritional factors can abet or protect against systemic chronic inflammation, which plays an important role in the development and progression of dementia. We evaluated whether higher (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: We evaluated whether higher Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores were associated with increased incidence of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia over 22.3 years of follow-up in the community-based Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort.
Methods: One thousand four hundred eighty-seven participants (mean ± standard deviation, age in years 69 ± 6) completed food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) and had incident all-cause dementia and AD surveillance data available.
Article Synopsis
- Midlife obesity may increase the risk of late-onset dementia, and studying adipokines (substances secreted by fat cells) could help understand this link in aging brains.
- Researchers analyzed serum concentrations of specific adipokines and their relationships to brain MRI markers in 1,882 middle-aged adults from the Framingham Heart Study.
- The study found that higher levels of certain adipokines, particularly RBP4, were associated with brain atrophy, including reduced brain volumes and increased ventricular sizes, suggesting that these factors could play a role in cognitive decline during midlife.
Article Synopsis
- Mild cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) markers are common but only high CSVD burden increases stroke and dementia risk, potentially identified using a multi-marker CSVD score.
- In a study of 1,154 participants aged 55 and older, those with three or more CSVD markers had a significantly higher stroke risk during an 8.6-year follow-up.
- The findings suggest that assessing CSVD burden could enhance stroke risk identification, complementing traditional risk assessments like the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile.
Article Synopsis
- White matter hyperintensities (WMH) increase with age and vary significantly between individuals, prompting the need for age- and sex-specific data for better assessment.
- This study pooled data from nearly 15,000 healthy individuals aged 18-97 to analyze WMH volumes using MRI and established centile curves based on age and sex.
- Findings reveal that WMH volumes increase significantly with age, with females having larger volumes, and these changes follow different patterns based on specific white matter locations, providing valuable normative data for clinical interpretations.
Background: Peak-width of skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD), a neuroimaging marker of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), has shown excellent instrumental properties. Here, we extend our work to perform a biological validation of PSMD.
Methods: We included 396 participants from the Biomarkers for Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (MarkVCID-1) Consortium and three replication samples (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology = 6172, Rush University Medical Center = 287, University of California Davis Alzheimer's Disease Research Center = 567).
Objectives: Late-onset epilepsy has the highest incidence among all age groups affected by epilepsy and often occurs in the absence of known clinical risk factors such as stroke and dementia. There is increasing evidence that brain changes contributing to epileptogenesis likely start years before disease onset, and we aim to relate cognitive and imaging correlates of subclinical brain injury to incident late-onset epilepsy in a large, community-based cohort.
Methods: We studied Offspring Cohort of the Framingham Heart Study participants 45 years or older, who were free of prevalent stroke, dementia, or epilepsy, and had neuropsychological (NP) evaluation and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Objective: Subclinical vascular brain injury is an increasingly recognized risk factor for stroke and dementia. Despite well-established sex differences in vascular risk and disease prevalence, the impact of sex on drivers of subclinical vascular brain injury remains unclear, presenting a barrier to developing sex-specific prevention guidelines. We aimed to establish the extent to which sex moderates associations between vascular risk factors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of subclinical brain injury in stroke-free older adults.
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- Short sleep duration is linked to cognitive impairment and dementia, particularly worsened by hypertension.
- A study involving 682 participants found that those with hypertension showed a decline in executive functioning and an increase in brain injury with shorter sleep.
- The relationship between sleep and cognitive performance was not observed in participants without hypertension, highlighting the importance of managing sleep and blood pressure for brain health.
Article Synopsis
- Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various developmental and psychiatric disorders, and a study analyzed brain volumes in 74,898 individuals, identifying 254 genetic loci linked to these volumes, which accounted for up to 35% of variation.
- The research included exploring gene expression in specific neural cell types, focusing on genes involved in intracellular signaling and processes related to brain aging.
- The findings suggest that certain genetic variants not only influence brain volume but also have potential causal links to conditions like Parkinson’s disease and ADHD, highlighting the genetic basis for risks associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
Background: Eggs are rich in bioactive compounds, including choline and carotenoids that may benefit cardiometabolic outcomes. However, little is known about their relationship with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Objectives: We investigated the association between intakes of eggs and selected egg-rich nutrients (choline, lutein, and zeaxanthin) and NAFLD risk and changes in liver fat over ∼6 y of follow-up in the Framingham Offspring and Third Generation cohorts.
Objective: To compare changes in cognitive trajectories after stroke between younger (18-64) and older (65+) adults, accounting for pre-stroke cognitive trajectories.
Materials And Methods: Pooled cohort study using individual participant data from 3 US cohorts (1971-2019), the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities Study (ARIC), Framingham Offspring Study (FOS), and REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke Study (REGARDS). Linear mixed effect models evaluated the association between age and the initial change (intercept) and rate of change (slope) in cognition after compared to before stroke.
Background: Hypothalamic gliosis is mechanistically linked to obesity and insulin resistance in rodent models. We tested cross-sectional associations between radiologic measures of hypothalamic gliosis in humans and clinically relevant cardiovascular disease risk factors, as well as prevalent coronary heart disease.
Methods: Using brain MRI images from Framingham Heart Study participants (N=867; mean age, 55 years; 55% females), T2 signal intensities were extracted bilaterally from the region of interest in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) and reference regions in the amygdala (AMY) and putamen (PUT).
Article Synopsis
- Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various disorders, and a study analyzed the genetic basis of brain volumes in nearly 75,000 individuals of European ancestry, revealing 254 loci linked to these volumes.
- The research identified significant gene expression in neural cells, relating to brain aging and signaling, and found that polygenic scores could predict brain volumes across different ancestries.
- The study highlights genetic connections between brain volumes and conditions like Parkinson's disease and ADHD, suggesting specific gene expression patterns could be involved in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Article Synopsis
- Cognitive resilience is when people don't show mental decline even if they have signs of Alzheimer's in their brains.
- Measuring cognitive resilience is tricky because it can't be seen directly, and one common method used might give wrong results.
- The new method we suggest uses machine learning to improve how we measure cognitive resilience, making it more accurate and relying less on guesses about the data.
Objective: To explore participant-level biological attributes and scan-level methodological attributes associated with retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness variability in a population-based sample of elderly United States adults.
Design: Cross-sectional analysis using data from the Framingham Heart Study.
Participants: One thousand three hundred forty-seven eyes from 825 participants with ≥1 OCT scan and axial length data were included.
Introduction: We investigated the associations of leptin markers with cognitive function and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain atrophy and vascular injury in healthy middle-aged adults.
Methods: We included 2262 cognitively healthy participants from the Framingham Heart Study with neuropsychological evaluation; of these, 2028 also had available brain MRI. Concentrations of leptin, soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R), and their ratio (free leptin index [FLI]), indicating leptin bioavailability, were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
Introduction: Understanding early neuropathological changes and their associations with cognition may aid dementia prevention. This study investigated associations of cerebral amyloid and tau positron emission tomography (PET) retention with cognition in a predominately middle-aged community-based cohort and examined factors that may modify these relationships.
Methods: C-Pittsburgh compound B amyloid and F-flortaucipir tau PET imaging were performed.
Background: Higher midlife physical activity engagement has been associated with lower dementia risk in late life. However, the underlying mechanisms contributing to the protective effect remain unclear.
Objective: The goal of the current study was to evaluate the associations of physical activity with cerebral amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau in a predominately middle-aged community-based cohort, as well as to explore whether the associations differ by sex or age.
Background: Some cohort studies have reported a decline in dementia prevalence and incidence over time, although these findings have not been consistent across studies. We reviewed evidence on changes in dementia prevalence and incidence over time using published population-based cohort studies that had used consistent methods with each wave and aimed to quantify associated changes in risk factors over time using population attributable fractions (PAFs).
Methods: We searched for systematic reviews of cohort studies examining changes in dementia prevalence or incidence over time.
Background: It is unclear how post-stroke cognitive trajectories differ by stroke type and ischemic stroke subtype. We studied associations between stroke types (ischemic, hemorrhagic), ischemic stroke subtypes (cardioembolic, large artery atherosclerotic, lacunar/small vessel, cryptogenic/other determined etiology), and post-stroke cognitive decline.
Methods: This pooled cohort analysis from four US cohort studies (1971-2019) identified 1,143 dementia-free individuals with acute stroke during follow-up: 1,061 (92.
Background: Associations of plasma total tau levels with future risk of AD have been described.
Objective: To examine the extent to which plasma tau reflects underlying AD brain pathology in cognitively healthy individuals.
Methods: We examined cross-sectional associations of plasma total tau with 11C-Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB)-PET and 18F-Flortaucipir (FTP)-PET in middle-aged participants at the community-based Framingham Heart Study.
Aim: The current study aims to investigate the association of serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels with symptoms of depression in adults with and without prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD), an often burdensome comorbidity.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included participants from FHS (Framingham Heart Study) who had available serum BDNF levels. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) with a score ≥16 indicating mild to moderate and ≥21 severe depression.