Deans' stroke musings: Social health and cognitive change in old age: the role of brain reserve

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Social health and cognitive change in old age: the role of brain reserve

I think my social health is damn good, but I still need to know EXACTLY how to increase my brain reserve since I probably expended all of it just surviving my stroke.

Social health and cognitive change in old age: the role of brain reserve

Anna Marseglia PhD, Grégoria Kalpouzos PhD, Erika J. Laukka PhD, Jane Maddock PhD, Praveetha Patalay PhD, Hui-Xin Wang, Lars Bäckman, Eric Westman … See all authors

First published: 29 December 2022

https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.26591

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/ana.26591.

Abstract

Objective

Individual aspects of social health (SH; e.g. network, engagement, support) have been linked to cognitive health. However, their combined effect, and the role of the structural properties of the brain (brain reserve, BR) remain unclear. We investigated the interplay of SH and BR on cognitive change in older adults.

Methods

Within the Swedish National study on Aging and Care-Kungsholmen, 368 dementia-free adults aged ≥60 years with baseline brain magnetic resonance imaging were followed over 12 years to assess cognitive change. A measure of global cognition was computed at each of the five waves of assessment by averaging domain-specific Z-scores for episodic memory, perceptual speed, semantic memory, letter and category fluency. An SH composite score was computed at baseline by combining leisure activities and social network. BR was proxied by total brain tissue volume (TBTV). Linear mixed models (adjusted for sociodemographic, vascular, and genetic factors) were used to estimate cognitive trajectories in relation to SH, TBTV. Interaction analysis and stratification were used to examine the interplay between SH and TBTV.

Results

Moderate-good SH (n=245; vs. poor; β-slope=0.01 [95% CI 0.002, 0.02]; p=0.018) and moderate-to-large TBTV (n=245; vs. small; β-slope=0.03 [95% CI 0.02, 0.04]; p<0.001) were separately associated with slower cognitive decline. In stratified analysis, moderate-good SH was associated with higher cognitive levels (but not change) only in participants with moderate-to-large TBTV (β-intercept=0.21 [95%CI 0.06; 0.37], p<0.01; interaction SH*TBTV p<0.05).

Interpretation

Our findings highlight the interplay between social health and brain reserve that likely unfolds throughout the entire life course to shape old-age cognitive outcomes.