Identification of plasma proteins relating to brain neurodegeneration and vascular pathology in cognitively normal individuals.

Introduction: This study aims to first discover plasma proteomic biomarkers relating to neurodegeneration (N) and vascular (V) damage in cognitively normal individuals and second to discover proteins mediating sex-related difference in N and V pathology.

Methods: Five thousand and thirty-two plasma proteins were measured in 1061 cognitively normal individuals (628 females and 433 males), nearly 90% of whom had magnetic resonance imaging measures of hippocampal volume (as N) and white matter hyperintensities (as V).

Results: Differential protein expression analysis and co-expression network analysis revealed different proteins and modules associated with N and V, respectively.

Coupled changes in hippocampal structure and cognitive ability in later life.

Introduction: The hippocampus plays an important role in cognitive abilities which often decline with advancing age.

Methods: In a longitudinal study of community-dwelling adults, we investigated whether there were coupled changes in hippocampal structure and verbal memory, working memory, and processing speed between the ages of 73 ( = 655) and 76 years ( = 469). Hippocampal structure was indexed by hippocampal volume, hippocampal volume as a percentage of intracranial volume (H_ICV), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and longitudinal relaxation time (T1).

Personality and Other Lifelong Influences on Older-Age Health and Wellbeing: Preliminary Findings in Two Scottish Samples.

Recent observations that personality traits are related to later-life health and wellbeing have inspired considerable interest in exploring the mechanisms involved. Other factors, such as cognitive ability and education, also show longitudinal influences on health and wellbeing, but it is not yet clear how all these early-life factors together contribute to later-life health and wellbeing. In this preliminary study, we assessed hypothesised relations among these variables across the life course, using structural equation modelling in a sample assessed on dependability (a personality trait related to conscientiousness) in childhood, cognitive ability and social class in childhood and older age, education, and health and subjective wellbeing in older age.