Exploring the relationship between dietary factors and structural brain alterations in a partial least squares correlation analysis

IF 7.4 2区医学 Q1 NUTRITION & DIETETICS

Clinical nutrition Pub Date : 2025-07-07 DOI:10.1016/j.clnu.2025.07.005

Carola Mayer , Merle Ebinghaus , Marvin Petersen , Felix L. Nägele , Maximilian Schell , Bastian Cheng , Märit Jensen , Nils Schumacher , Sanjula D. Singh , Jonathan Rosand , Elina L. Petersen , Raphael Twerenbold , Felix Alexander Neumann , Bettina Jagemann , Götz Thomalla , Birgit-Christiane Zyriax

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background & aims

While nutritional behavior has been shown to affect cognitive health, data is lacking on the association between nutrition and structural brain alterations. We aimed to investigate whether specific food items, commonly found in dietary patterns that are considered healthy, are associated with preserved brain structure.

Methods

Utilizing data from a prospective, cross-sectional, population-based cohort study, we applied a partial least squares correlation (PLS) analysis to identify multivariate associative effects between two data modalities: a) imaging parameters derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of global brain micro- and macrostructure; and b) items of validated dietary patterns (Mediterranean diet, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet) assessed with a food frequency questionnaire. We controlled for confounding factors by regressing out effects of age, sex, education, and cardiovascular risk factors.

Results

A total of 2,652 participants were included in the statistical analysis. The PLS revealed one significant latent variable explaining 64 % of the shared variance between dietary items and brain imaging markers. Specifically, the latent variable corresponded with a covariance pattern relating higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and dairies and a lower consumption of cheese with preserved brain structure, indicated by an increased microstructural integrity, higher cortical thickness and lower white matter hyperintensity volume.

Conclusion

Across all dietary patterns, vegetables and fruits were the food groups with consistent associations with preserved brain structure, indicating the importance of these foods for neurological health. The MIND diet as the dietary pattern with neurological focus showed the highest number of items associated with brain structure. To reach conclusions on causality, longitudinal analyses should be included in future research.

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用偏最小二乘相关分析探讨饮食因素与大脑结构改变之间的关系

背景,虽然营养行为已被证明会影响认知健康，但缺乏营养与大脑结构改变之间关系的数据。我们的目的是调查在被认为健康的饮食模式中常见的特定食物是否与保存大脑结构有关。方法利用一项前瞻性、横断面、基于人群的队列研究的数据，应用偏最小二乘相关（PLS）分析来确定两种数据模式之间的多变量关联效应：a)来自全球大脑微观和宏观结构的磁共振成像（MRI）成像参数；b)经验证的饮食模式项目（地中海饮食、停止高血压的饮食方法（DASH）饮食、地中海-DASH干预神经退行性延迟饮食（MIND）饮食）用食物频率问卷进行评估。我们通过回归排除年龄、性别、教育程度和心血管危险因素的影响来控制混杂因素。结果共纳入2652人。PLS揭示了一个显著的潜在变量，解释了饮食项目和脑成像标记之间64%的共同差异。具体来说，潜在变量与一种协方差模式相对应，这种协方差模式与高摄入量的蔬菜、水果、全谷物和乳制品和低摄入量的奶酪有关，这些大脑结构得到了保存，表明微观结构完整性增加，皮层厚度增加，白质高密度体积减少。结论在所有饮食模式中，蔬菜和水果是与保持大脑结构一致的食物组，表明这些食物对神经健康的重要性。MIND饮食作为一种以神经系统为重点的饮食模式显示出与大脑结构相关的项目数量最多。为了得出因果关系的结论，在未来的研究中应该包括纵向分析。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Clinical nutrition 医学-营养学

CiteScore

14.10

自引率

6.30%

发文量

356

审稿时长

28 days

期刊介绍： Clinical Nutrition, the official journal of ESPEN, The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, is an international journal providing essential scientific information on nutritional and metabolic care and the relationship between nutrition and disease both in the setting of basic science and clinical practice. Published bi-monthly, each issue combines original articles and reviews providing an invaluable reference for any specialist concerned with these fields.