Dissecting unique and common variance across body and brain health indicators using age predictionShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Human Brain Mapping, ISSN 1065-9471, E-ISSN 1097-0193, Vol. 45, no 6, article id e26685Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
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. A 'body age' model trained on health traits demonstrated comparable age prediction accuracy to models trained solely on brain MRI data. Health traits may differentially influence age predictions beyond what is captured by the brain imaging data, revealing a degree of unique variance in brain and bodily ageing processes. image
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
WILEY , 2024. Vol. 45, no 6, article id e26685
Keywords [en]
ageing; body composition; brain age; cardiometabolic; health
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-203096DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26685ISI: 001206018800001PubMedID: 38647042OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-203096DiVA, id: diva2:1855175
Note
Funding Agencies|Helse Sr-st RHF [223273, 324252, 300767, 324499]; Research Council of Norway [2017112, 2019101, 2022080, 2020060]; South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority [847776, 802998]; European Union [01ZX1904A]; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [PZ00P3_193658]; Swiss National Science Foundation [27412]; University of Oslo, Norway
2024-04-302024-04-302025-02-20