Cognitive abilities help explain regional brain aging patterns in anxiety and depression
A new study suggests that the advanced brain aging often seen in people with anxiety and depression is partly explained by differences in cognitive skills like memory and processing speed, rather than the psychiatric conditions alone.
A recent study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders reveals that advanced brain aging often observed in individuals with anxiety and depression may be partly attributed to variations in their cognitive performance. By incorporating cognitive skills such as memory and processing speed into their analysis, researchers found that the apparent impact of these psychiatric conditions on brain aging decreased by approximately twenty to twenty-five percent.
This suggests that cognitive differences play a significant role in understanding brain health in individuals with neuropsychiatric conditions. The researchers utilized structural magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning algorithms to predict a person's brain age by comparing their brain structure to a large dataset of healthy individuals, ultimately determining the brain age gap.
A positive gap indicates an older-appearing brain, which is linked to cognitive decline, health risks, and various neurological conditions. The study aimed to move beyond global brain age predictions and instead focus on regional brain aging patterns to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms contributing to psychiatric brain aging.
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