Associations between ruminative brooding and white matter change amongst healthy middle‐aged and older adults

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundRepetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) includes negative thoughts about the future (worry) and past (ruminative brooding). RNT has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology (Marchant et al. Alzheimers Dement. 2020;16(7)) and different patterns of functional connectivity of the triple network of attention, namely, the default mode, executive control and anterior salience networks (Solé‐Padullés et al. Front Aging Neurosci. 2022;14). However, the association between RNT and white matter microstructure is unclear (Demnitz‐King et al. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2021;316) and no existing studies have examined this association longitudinally among non‐clinical adults.MethodHealthy adults (age range: 50‐70, 51.2% women) from the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative (Cattaneo et al. Front Aging Neurosci. 2018 11;10) completed the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ), Rumination Response Scale (RRS), and Penn‐State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) at baseline to measure RNT levels. Participants underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with T1 and T2‐weighted acquisitions to assess volume of white matter hypointensities (WMH) at baseline (N = 588) and two years later (N = 425). Change in WMH was computed taking into account time interval between scans. Stepwise linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate associations between change in WMH and baseline age, sex, PTQ, PSWQ and RRS subscale scores (brooding, reflection and depression).ResultBaseline age (t = 3.71, p<0.0001) and brooding (t = 2.82, p = 0.005) were associated with increased WMH across scans (see partial regression plots, Fig 1A/B). No cross‐sectional associations were observed between volume of WMH and RNT‐related variables.ConclusionBrooding was associated with increase of WMH in healthy adults. Brooding, a maladaptive form of emotion regulation, enhances repetitive focus on one’s distress and is associated with altered connectivity of attentional networks and greater asymmetry of the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus in depressed adults (Pisner et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2019;24). Our results are of importance considering that: WMH correlate with CSF‐amyloid in cognitively unimpaired older adults (Wei et al. Brain Behav. 2019;9(12)) and this is the first longitudinal study focusing on white matter change as related to psychological variables linked to cognitive decline and AD‐related pathology. The putative impact of psychological factors on brain integrity can be detected even at sub‐clinical levels and in earlier stages within the dementia continuum.