Brain Imaging Features Associated with 20-Year Cognitive Decline in a Community-Based Multiethnic Cohort without Dementia

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to characterize the association of cognitive decline starting in midlife with brain pathology in late life in the absence of dementia. Methods: Nondemented Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities participants with brain imaging, all cognitive factor scores (CFSs), and nonmissing covariates were included. CFSs were collected at three visits across 21 years (1990–2013) (short-term cognitive change [1990–1996], long-term cognitive change [1990–2013]), and brain magnetic resonance imaging and florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) imaging were collected in 2011–13 (PET subset n = 327). Outcomes of interest were total and regional brain volumes (cm³), log₂ (white matter hyperintensity volume), white matter integrity (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity), ≥1 lacunar infarct (3–20 mm), and elevated brain β-amyloid (SUVR >1.2). Multivariable linear/logistic regression related outcomes to CFS slopes after adjusting for demographics and total intracranial volume. Results: At baseline, the 1,734 participants had a mean (SD) age of 55 (5.2) years, and were 60% female and 26% Black. After adjustment, a 1-SD larger long-term decline in CFS was associated with a smaller relative total brain volume by 1.2% (95% CI: 1.0, 1.5), a smaller relative temporal lobe meta region volume by 1.9% (1.5, 2.3), a 13% (9, 17) larger volume of white matter hyperintensities, a 1.3-fold (1.2, 1.4) higher odds of having ≥1 lacune, and 1.7-fold (1.3, 2.2) higher odds of elevated brain β-amyloid deposition and worse white matter integrity. Some long-term associations were also found for midlife short-term declines in CFS. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that starting in midlife, short-term and long-term declines in cognition are associated with multiple deleterious late-life differences in nondemented brains.