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Basal forebrain functional connectivity as a mediator of associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognition in healthy older women

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Abstract

Age-related cholinergic dysfunction within the basal forebrain (BF) is one of the key hallmarks for age-related cognitive decline. Given that higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) induces neuroprotective effects that may differ by sex, we investigated the moderating effects of sex on the associations between CRF, BF cholinergic function, and cognitive function in older adults. 176 older adults (68.5 years) were included from the Nathan Kline Institute Rockland Sample. Functional connectivity (rsFC) of the BF subregions including the medial septal nucleus/diagonal band of Broca (MS/DB) and nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) were computed from resting-sate functional MRI. Modified Astrand-Ryhming submaximal cycle ergometer protocol was used to estimate CRF. Trail making task and inhibition performance during the color word interference test from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test were used to examine cognitive function. Linear regression models were used to assess the associations between CRF, BF rsFC, and cognitive performance after controlling for age, sex, and years of education. Subsequently, we measured the associations between the variables in men and women separately to investigate the sex differences. There was an association between higher CRF and greater rsFC between the NBM and right middle frontal gyrus in older men and women. There were significant associations between CRF, NBM rsFC, and trail making task number-letter switching performance only in women. In women, greater NBM rsFC mediated the association between higher CRF and better trail making task number-letter switching performance. These findings provide evidence that greater NBM rsFC, particularly in older women, may be an underlying neural mechanism for the relationship between higher CRF and better executive function.

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Data availability

We used de-identified open-access data from the Nathan Kline Institute Rockland Sample (http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/enhanced). The NKI institutional review board approved all study procedures with regards to collecting and sharing data, and consent was obtained for each participant.

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Acknowledgements

This project was completed by JW in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Kinesiology at the University of Maryland. We thank the NKI team for sharing the data.

Funding

This project was supported by grant R01AG0557552 from the National Institute on Aging and 2RF1NS023945-28 from the National Institute of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Aging or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

    Junyeon Won

  2. Department of Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Junyeon Won

  3. Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Laszlo Zaborszky

  4. Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Jeremy J. Purcell, Rodolphe J. Gentili & J. Carson Smith

  5. Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2351 SPH Bldg #255, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sushant M. Ranadive, Rodolphe J. Gentili & J. Carson Smith

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Contributions

J.W., L.Z., and J.C.S. developed the study idea. J.W. analyzed the data and drafted the paper. L.Z., J.P., S.R., R.G., and J.C.S. edited the paper. All authors reviewed, revised, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to J. Carson Smith.

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According to the Declaration of Helsinki, all participants provided written informed consent to the NKI-RS project consortium, which was approved by the NKI Institutional Review Board.

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Won, J., Zaborszky, L., Purcell, J.J. et al. Basal forebrain functional connectivity as a mediator of associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognition in healthy older women. Brain Imaging and Behavior 17, 571–583 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-023-00784-4

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