Dissecting unique and common variance across body and brain health indicators using age prediction.

Journal: Human brain mapping
PMID: 38647042

Abstract

Ageing is a heterogeneous multisystem process involving different rates of decline in physiological integrity across biological systems. The current study dissects the unique and common variance across body and brain health indicators and parses inter-individual heterogeneity in the multisystem ageing process. Using machine-learning regression models on the UK Biobank data set (N = 32,593, age range 44.6-82.3, mean age 64.1 years), we first estimated tissue-specific brain age for white and gray matter based on diffusion and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, respectively. Next, bodily health traits, including cardiometabolic, anthropometric, and body composition measures of adipose and muscle tissue from bioimpedance and body MRI, were combined to predict 'body age'. The results showed that the body age model demonstrated comparable age prediction accuracy to models trained solely on brain MRI data. The correlation between body age and brain age predictions was 0.62 for the T1 and 0.64 for the diffusion-based model, indicating a degree of unique variance in brain and bodily ageing processes. Bayesian multilevel modelling carried out to quantify the associations between health traits and predicted age discrepancies showed that higher systolic blood pressure and higher muscle-fat infiltration were related to older-appearing body age compared to brain age. Conversely, higher hand-grip strength and muscle volume were related to a younger-appearing body age. Our findings corroborate the common notion of a close connection between somatic and brain health. However, they also suggest that health traits may differentially influence age predictions beyond what is captured by the brain imaging data, potentially contributing to heterogeneous ageing rates across biological systems and individuals.

Authors

  • Dani Beck
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Ann-Marie G de Lange
    LREN, Centre for Research in Neurosciences, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne, Lausanne.
  • Tiril P Gurholt
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Irene Voldsbekk
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Ivan I Maximov
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Sivaniya Subramaniapillai
    Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Louise Schindler
    Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Guy Hindley
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Esten H Leonardsen
    Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: estenhl@psykologi.uio.no.
  • Zillur Rahman
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Dennis van der Meer
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Max Korbmacher
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Jennifer Linge
    AMRA Medical AB, Linköping, Sweden.
  • Olof D Leinhard
    AMRA Medical AB, Linköping, Sweden.
  • Karl T Kalleberg
    Age Labs AS, Oslo, Norway.
  • Andreas Engvig
    Department of Endocrinology, Obesity and Preventive Medicine, Section of Preventive Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
  • Ida Sønderby
    NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
  • Ole A Andreassen
    NORMENT, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: o.a.andreassen@medisin.uio.no.
  • Lars T Westlye
    CoE NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

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