Buffering brain aging: education moderates language impairment in Parkinson's disease.

IF 4 3区医学 Q2 NEUROSCIENCES

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience Pub Date : 2025-08-20 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fncel.2025.1606451

Minchul Kim, Kwangsun Yoo

{"title":"Buffering brain aging: education moderates language impairment in Parkinson's disease.","authors":"Minchul Kim, Kwangsun Yoo","doi":"10.3389/fncel.2025.1606451","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the discrepancy between brain pathology and observed cognitive decline. While education is a key indicator of CR, its role as a potential moderator in the relationships between brain morphology and cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unclear. This study examined whether education affects the relationship between brain age and cognitive impairments in patients with PD.Methods: Data from 58 patients with PD were analyzed using a secondary dataset from the OpenNeuro database. Participants aged ≥55 years were on stable medications and underwent standardized neuropsychological assessments. Brain age predictions were generated from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using the brainageR package, and the brain age difference (BAD) was calculated after correction for regression dilution. The moderation effect of education on the relationship between BAD and cognition was assessed using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The primary outcome was cognitive performance across six domains: attention, executive function, language, learning and memory, visuospatial ability, and global cognition.Results: Among the six domains, a significant moderation effect of education was found only for language ability (β = 0.01, p = 0.013, R 2 = 0.20). The relationship between BAD and language was steeper at lower education levels. No statistically significant moderation was found in the remaining five domains.Conclusion: Having more years of education is associated with buffering the effects of accelerated brain aging on language ability in PD.","PeriodicalId":12432,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience","volume":"19 ","pages":"1606451"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12405238/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2025.1606451","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the discrepancy between brain pathology and observed cognitive decline. While education is a key indicator of CR, its role as a potential moderator in the relationships between brain morphology and cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unclear. This study examined whether education affects the relationship between brain age and cognitive impairments in patients with PD.

Methods: Data from 58 patients with PD were analyzed using a secondary dataset from the OpenNeuro database. Participants aged ≥55 years were on stable medications and underwent standardized neuropsychological assessments. Brain age predictions were generated from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using the brainageR package, and the brain age difference (BAD) was calculated after correction for regression dilution. The moderation effect of education on the relationship between BAD and cognition was assessed using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The primary outcome was cognitive performance across six domains: attention, executive function, language, learning and memory, visuospatial ability, and global cognition.

Results: Among the six domains, a significant moderation effect of education was found only for language ability (β = 0.01, p = 0.013, R ² = 0.20). The relationship between BAD and language was steeper at lower education levels. No statistically significant moderation was found in the remaining five domains.

Conclusion: Having more years of education is associated with buffering the effects of accelerated brain aging on language ability in PD.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

缓冲脑老化：教育减轻帕金森病的语言障碍。

背景：认知储备（Cognitive reserve， CR）是指脑病理与观察到的认知衰退之间的差异。虽然教育是CR的一个关键指标，但其在帕金森病（PD）脑形态和认知障碍之间的关系中的潜在调节作用尚不清楚。本研究探讨教育是否影响PD患者脑年龄与认知障碍之间的关系。方法：使用OpenNeuro数据库的辅助数据集分析58例PD患者的数据。年龄≥55岁的参与者服用稳定的药物，并接受标准化的神经心理学评估。使用brainageR软件包从t1加权磁共振成像（MRI）生成脑年龄预测，并在回归稀释校正后计算脑年龄差（BAD）。采用Hayes’s PROCESS宏观评价教育对不良行为与认知关系的调节作用。主要结果是六个领域的认知表现：注意力、执行功能、语言、学习和记忆、视觉空间能力和整体认知。结果：在6个领域中，教育程度仅对语言能力有显著的调节作用（β = 0.01, p = 0.013, r2 = 0.20）。教育水平越低，不良反应和语言之间的关系越明显。在其余五个领域中没有发现统计学上显著的缓和。结论：受教育年限越长，PD患者大脑加速老化对语言能力的影响越缓。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience NEUROSCIENCES-

CiteScore

7.90

自引率

3.80%

发文量

627

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience is a leading journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research that advances our understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying cell function in the nervous system across all species. Specialty Chief Editors Egidio D‘Angelo at the University of Pavia and Christian Hansel at the University of Chicago are supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide.