Abstract
Zinc is a biologically essential element and involved in a wide range of cellular processes. Here, we investigated the associations of zinc levels in hair with brain activity during the n-back working memory task using functional magnetic resonance imaging, fractional anisotropy (FA) of diffusion tensor imaging, and cognitive differences in a study cohort of 924 healthy young adults. Our findings showed that greater hair zinc levels were associated with lower brain activity during working memory in extensive areas in the default mode network (i.e., greater task-induced deactivation) as well as greater FA in white matter areas near the hippocampus and posterior limbs of the internal capsule. These findings advance previous non-neuroimaging findings of zinc’s associations with excitability, excitability-associated disorders, and myelination.
Highlights
Zinc is highly concentrated in the hippocampus, and zinc deprivation has been shown to result in deficits in hippocampal activation and abrogate long-term potentiation (LTP), reduce hippocampal neurogenesis, and increase neuronal apoptosis that destroys structural hippocampal plasticity[1,14,15]
Despite zinc’s wide range of physiological roles and the behavioral deficits and pathologies associated with zinc deprivation, the associations of body zinc level with brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging and white matter structure remain unknown
Consistent with our hypothesis, greater hair zinc level was associated with lower brain activity during a working memory task in extensive areas in the default mode network (DMN)
Summary
Zinc is highly concentrated in the hippocampus, and zinc deprivation has been shown to result in deficits in hippocampal activation and abrogate long-term potentiation (LTP), reduce hippocampal neurogenesis, and increase neuronal apoptosis that destroys structural hippocampal plasticity[1,14,15]. Despite zinc’s wide range of physiological roles and the behavioral deficits and pathologies associated with zinc deprivation, the associations of body zinc level with brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and white matter structure remain unknown. Hair mineral levels are not affected substantially by rapid fluctuation in mineral intake and show long-term s tability[19] These characteristics give hair mineral analysis advantages over other methods to measure mineral levels such as blood and urine analyses.
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