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Published on: June 26, 2013
Exploring the relationship between dietary factors and structural brain alterations in a partial least squares
Carola Mayer1, Merle Ebinghaus2, Marvin Petersen1
1Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
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.
