Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 11, 2025
07:30
Evaluation of the Cognitive Performance of Hypertensive Patients with Silent Cerebrovascular Lesions
Published on: April 23, 2021
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A structural heart-brain axis mediates the association between cardiovascular risk and cognitive function.
Akshay Jaggi1, Eleanor L S Conole2, Zahra Raisi-Estabragh3,4
1Facultat de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, España.
Imaging Neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
|August 13, 2025
Summary
Vascular disease risk impacts cognitive function. This study reveals how heart and brain structure variations mediate this link, supporting the structural-functional model and identifying key imaging biomarkers.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular and Neurological Sciences
- Medical Imaging and Biomarkers
Background:
- Elevated vascular disease risk is linked to poorer cognitive function, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
- The structural-functional model proposes that vascular risk leads to cardiac remodeling, causing chronic cerebral hypoperfusion and brain damage.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the structural-functional model's prediction that heart and brain structural variations associate with vascular risk and cognitive function.
- To identify imaging biomarkers and explore 'heart-brain axes' that mediate the relationship between vascular risk and cognitive decline.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a large UK Biobank cohort (N = 11,962) including vascular risk factors, cardiac MRI radiomics, and brain structural/diffusion MRI.
- Extraction and analysis of 'heart-brain axes' representing covariation between cardiac and brain structural measures.
- Assessment of cognitive function using standardized tests.
Main Results:
- Several heart (e.g., left ventricular end-diastolic volume) and brain (e.g., grey matter volume) measures partially explained the vascular risk-cognitive function association.
- A specific 'heart-brain axis' (lower myocardial intensity, lower grey matter volume, poorer thalamic white matter integrity) fully mediated this association.
- Brain structural variations did not entirely explain the association between heart structure and cognitive function, suggesting a more complex relationship.
Conclusions:
- Findings provide evidence supporting the structural-functional hypothesis linking vascular risk, cardiac remodeling, and cognitive function.
- Identified novel imaging biomarkers and 'heart-brain axes' that elucidate the relationship between cardiovascular health and brain function.
- Generated new hypotheses regarding the intricate pathways through which cardiovascular risk influences cognitive decline.
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