Brain macrostructure correlates of financial altruism in older adults without dementia.

Abstract

Greater financial altruism (i.e., the tendency to give money to an anonymous individual) has been previously associated with poorer performance on neuropsychological tests sensitive to cognitive changes occurring in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While these findings provide initial support for the idea that financial altruism may be associated with early AD-related brain changes, no study has used MRI to investigate structural brain correlates of financial altruism in older adults. To address this gap in the literature, the current study investigated associations between brain macrostructure and financial altruism in 101 older adults free from dementia (mean age = 68.45±7.15, mean education = 16.61±2.14, 76% female, 73% White) using a high-field 7 Tesla MRI. Results revealed no significant associations between financial altruism and a priori regions of interest (entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction) in the entire sample. However, there was a significant interaction between financial altruism and income, whereby greater financial altruism was associated with lower hippocampal volume in those with a reported income below $100,000. Collectively these results suggest that financial altruism in the context of lower income, but not financial altruism in general, may reflect suboptimal brain aging, and perhaps greater risk of conversion to AD.