A pivotal study recently published in the journal Gero Science has revealed new insights into how individual brain regions age and why some are more severely disrupted by Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Titled “Deep Neural Networks and Genome-Wide Associations Reveal the Polygenic Architecture of Local Brain Aging,” this landmark research, reported by MedicalXpress.com, details the genetic traits passed from parents to offspring and how they influence aging in different brain regions.
For years, the brain has been assigned a single aging score. The current research takes a more precise approach by questioning how certain genetic factors in different regions of the brain contribute to aging. Scientists call this concept “brain age.” The study was led by Nicholas Kim, a senior at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, under the guidance of Andrei Irimia, an associate professor of gerontology.
Rather than assigning the brain to a single aging score as previous studies did, this new research asks a more specific question: how do genetic factors contribute to aging across different brain regions? Local brain age (LBA) offers an alternative to global brain age, whose genetic basis had previously remained unexplored.
The new study of cortical LBA focuses on recognizing specific neural activity apart from global brain measures. Research areas involve EEG neurofeedback that targets certain brain regions and pinpoints aging patterns.
