ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2023
Purpose in life promotes resilience to age-related brain burden in middle-aged adults.
Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychometric Properties of the Italian Adaptation of the Subjective Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire Based on Modifiable Lifestyle Factors (SCR-Q).Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The protective role of companion animal ownership in cognitive aging: current status of the literature.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Shared white matter connectome-based correlates of self-reproach, response failure, spatial planning, and resilience in patients with subthreshold depression: a graph theory approach.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Expotype-phenotype resilience and multimodal aging clocks.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Article
- Preserved cognitive-functional phenotype in centenarians and its association with modifiable risk factors for dementia: Results from the Colombian centenarians project.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Potential Mechanisms of Influence Between Spiritual Practices and Cognitive Health: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Model.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Facets of Religion/Spirituality and Cognitive Health: Association Variations Across Gender and Race Among Older Adults.Religions · 2025Article
- Use of Multiple Languages Provides Cognitive Reserve Amidst Age-Related White Matter Changes.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Clustering on longitudinal lifestyle trajectories and their impact on cognitive performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Understanding the Temporal Dynamics of Accelerated Brain Aging and Resilient Brain Aging: Insights from Discriminative Event-Based Analysis of UK Biobank Data.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Elucidating Multimodal Imaging Patterns in Accelerated Brain Aging: Heterogeneity through a Discriminant Analysis Approach Using the UK Biobank Dataset.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Risk Polymorphisms ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- APOE Peripheral and Brain Impact: APOE4 Carriers Accelerate Their Alzheimer Continuum and Have a High Risk of Suicide in PMBiomolecules · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundDisease-modifying agents to counteract cognitive impairment in older age remain elusive. Hence, identifying modifiable factors promoting resilience, as the capacity of the brain to maintain cognition and function with aging and disease, is paramount. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), education and occupation are typical cognitive reserve proxies. However, the importance of psychological factors is being increasingly recognized, as their operating biological mechanisms are elucidated. Purpose in life (PiL), one of the pillars of psychological well-being, has previously been found to reduce the deleterious effects of AD-related pathological changes on cognition. However, whether PiL operates as a resilience factor in middle-aged individuals and what are the underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown.
methodsData was obtained from 624 middle-aged adults (mean age 53.71 ± 6.9; 303 women) from the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative cohort. Individuals with lower (LP; N = 146) and higher (HP; N = 100) PiL rates, according to the division of this variable into quintiles, were compared in terms of cognitive status, a measure reflecting brain burden (white matter lesions; WMLs), and resting-state functional connectivity, examining system segregation (SyS) parameters using 14 common brain circuits.
resultsNeuropsychological status and WMLs burden did not differ between the PiL groups. However, in the LP group, greater WMLs entailed a negative impact on executive functions. Subjects in the HP group showed lower SyS of the dorsal default-mode network (dDMN), indicating lesser segregation of this network from other brain circuits. Specifically, HP individuals had greater inter-network connectivity between specific dDMN nodes, including the frontal cortex, the hippocampal formation, the midcingulate region, and the rest of the brain. Greater functional connectivity in some of these nodes positively correlated with cognitive performance.
conclusionExpanding previous findings on AD pathology and advanced age, the present results suggest that higher rates of PiL may promote resilience against brain changes already observable in middle age. Furthermore, having a purposeful life implies larger functional integration of the dDMN, which may potentially reflect greater brain reserve associated to better cognitive function.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.