Association of body-mass index with physiological brain pulsations across adulthood – a fast fMRI study

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Abstract

Background/objective

Obesity is a risk factor for several brain-related health issues, and high body-mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk for several neurological conditions, including cognitive decline and dementia. Cardiovascular, respiratory, and vasomotor brain pulsations have each been shown to drive intracranial cerebrovascular fluid (CSF) flow, which is linked to the brain metabolite efflux that sustains homeostasis. While these three physiological pulsations are demonstrably altered in numerous brain diseases, there is no previous investigation of the association between physiological brain pulsations and BMI.

Subjects/methods

We measured the amplitudes of the physiological brain pulsations using amplitude of low frequency fluctation (ALFF) based method with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging via high temporal resolution whole-brain magnetic resonance encephalography (MREG) in 115 healthy subjects. We next undertook multiple linear regression to model the BMI effect voxel-wise whole-brain on very low frequency (VLF), respiration, cardiovascular, and respiratory induced modulation of cardiovascular pulsation amplitudes with age, pulse pressure, and gender as nuisance variables.

Results

In our study population, BMI was positively associated with the amplitudes of vasomotor, respiratory, and respiratory induced modulations of cardiovascular pulsations ( p < 0.05), while negatively associated with the amplitudes of cardiovascular pulsations ( p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that BMI is a significant factor in alterations of cardiovascular pulsation of neurofluids. As physiological pulsations are the drivers of CSF flow and subsequent metabolite clearance, these results emphasize the need for further research into the mechanisms through which obesity affects brain clearance.

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Most cited references 59

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FSL.

Mark Jenkinson, Christian F. Beckmann, Timothy Behrens … (2012)

FSL (the FMRIB Software Library) is a comprehensive library of analysis tools for functional, structural and diffusion MRI brain imaging data, written mainly by members of the Analysis Group, FMRIB, Oxford. For this NeuroImage special issue on "20 years of fMRI" we have been asked to write about the history, developments and current status of FSL. We also include some descriptions of parts of FSL that are not well covered in the existing literature. We hope that some of this content might be of interest to users of FSL, and also maybe to new research groups considering creating, releasing and supporting new software packages for brain image analysis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease.

Michael T Heneka, Monica Carson, Joseph El Khoury … (2015)

Increasing evidence suggests that Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis is not restricted to the neuronal compartment, but includes strong interactions with immunological mechanisms in the brain. Misfolded and aggregated proteins bind to pattern recognition receptors on microglia and astroglia, and trigger an innate immune response characterised by release of inflammatory mediators, which contribute to disease progression and severity. Genome-wide analysis suggests that several genes that increase the risk for sporadic Alzheimer's disease encode factors that regulate glial clearance of misfolded proteins and the inflammatory reaction. External factors, including systemic inflammation and obesity, are likely to interfere with immunological processes of the brain and further promote disease progression. Modulation of risk factors and targeting of these immune mechanisms could lead to future therapeutic or preventive strategies for Alzheimer's disease. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Altered baseline brain activity in children with ADHD revealed by resting-state functional MRI.

Yu-Feng Zang, Yong Qing He, Chao-Zhe Zhu … (2007)

In children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), functional neuroimaging studies have revealed abnormalities in various brain regions, including prefrontal-striatal circuit, cerebellum, and brainstem. In the current study, we used a new marker of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), amplitude of low-frequency (0.01-0.08Hz) fluctuation (ALFF) to investigate the baseline brain function of this disorder. Thirteen boys with ADHD (13.0+/-1.4 years) were examined by resting-state fMRI and compared with age-matched controls. As a result, we found that patients with ADHD had decreased ALFF in the right inferior frontal cortex, [corrected] and bilateral cerebellum and the vermis as well as increased ALFF in the right anterior cingulated cortex, left sensorimotor cortex, and bilateral brainstem. This resting-state fMRI study suggests that the changed spontaneous neuronal activity of these regions may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology in children with ADHD.