Association of neighborhood disadvantage with cognitive function and cortical disorganization in an unimpaired cohort

TL;DR

This study explores how neighborhood disadvantage impacts cortical brain organization and cognitive function in unimpaired individuals, revealing local cortical differences and a mediating role of specific brain regions.

Contribution

It introduces the use of Morphological Similarity Networks to link neighborhood disadvantage with cortical patterns and cognitive performance in a large cohort.

Findings

Neighborhood disadvantage correlates with poorer cognitive scores.

Local cortical network features differ by neighborhood status.

Left lateral orbitofrontal centrality partially mediates cognitive effects.

Abstract

Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with worse health and cognitive outcomes. Morphological similarity network (MSN) is a promising approach to elucidate cortical network patterns underlying complex cognitive functions. We hypothesized that MSNs could capture changes in cortical patterns related to neighborhood disadvantage and cognitive function. This cross-sectional study included cognitively unimpaired participants from two large Alzheimers studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Neighborhood disadvantage status was obtained using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI). Cognitive performance was assessed on memory, processing speed and executive function. Morphological Similarity Networks (MSN) were constructed for each participant based on the similarity in distribution of cortical thickness of brain regions, followed by computation of local and global network features. Association of ADI with cognitive scores and MSN features were examined using linear regression and mediation analysis. ADI showed negative association with category fluency,implicit learning speed, story recall and modified pre-clinical Alzheimers cognitive composite scores, indicating worse cognitive function among those living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. Local network features of frontal and temporal regions differed based on ADI status. Centrality of left lateral orbitofrontal region showed a partial mediating effect between association of neighborhood disadvantage and story recall performance. Our preliminary findings suggest differences in local cortical organization by neighborhood disadvantage, which partially mediated the relationship between ADI and cognitive performance, providing a possible network-based mechanism to, in-part, explain the risk for poor cognitive functioning associated with disadvantaged neighborhoods.