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Can problems with brain development in early life affect one’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease?
Brian Gordon, Ph.D.
Washington University in St.Louis
St. Louis, MS - United States
Background
Studies have shown that education, income, access to health care and other “social determinants of health” can impact the brain over a person’s lifetime. Social determinants of health may even affect the brain at the beginning of life. Low birth weight and poverty – factors often experienced among people in underserved communities – can slow brain development in early childhood. Research has found that altered childhood brain growth may place people at greater risk of various mental illnesses, including depression. More recently, scientists have also begun to explore whether early life adversity can place people at greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Preliminary work by Dr. Brian Gordon and colleagues, for example, indicates that low birth weight, poverty and other factors may hinder the growth of cortical brain regions (regions that control memory and thinking) in ways that lead to Alzheimer’s-related cortical damage later in life.
Research Plan
Dr. Gordon and team will now devote their research grant to a larger study of early-life adversity and dementia risk. For their effort, they will analyze brain data from infants and young children, as well as older adults. This data will be acquired from several sources, including the U.K. Biobank, a large, diverse study of aging in the United Kingdom. In their first experiment, the researchers will use a novel analytical method to compare cortical brain development in young brains with cortical decline in older individuals. They will assess how changes in brain development may involve structural and genetic factors that mirror those involved in dementia-related brain decline. Next, Dr. Gordon’s team will study U.K. Biobank data to identify how individuals who experience adverse social determinants of health in childhood may be at altered risk of Alzheimer’s. Lastly, the researchers will use an advanced computer science technique called machine learning to determine how early life trauma or adversity may predict how quicky the brain ages over time.
Impact
Results from this project could shed new light on how brain development from childhood can impact Alzheimer’s risk. Ultimately, they could lead to novel methods of diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s at an early stage, especially in communities most at risk for the disease.
The New Investigator Program Award (NIAP) is jointly funded by the Alzheimer's Association and National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center.
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