Increases in regional brain volume across two native South American male populations

Nikhil N Chaudhari; Phoebe E Imms; Nahian F Chowdhury; Margaret Gatz; Benjamin C Trumble; Wendy J Mack; E Meng Law; M Linda Sutherland; James D Sutherland; Christopher J Rowan; L Samuel Wann; Adel H Allam; Randall C Thompson; David E Michalik; Michael Miyamoto; Guido Lombardi; Daniel K Cummings; Edmond Seabright; Sarah Alami; Angela R Garcia; Daniel E Rodriguez; Raul Quispe Gutierrez; Adrian J Copajira; Paul L Hooper; Kenneth H Buetow; Jonathan Stieglitz; Michael D Gurven; Gregory S Thomas; Hillard S Kaplan; Caleb E Finch; Andrei Irimia

doi:10.1007/s11357-024-01168-2

Increases in regional brain volume across two native South American male populations

Geroscience. 2024 Oct;46(5):4563-4583. doi: 10.1007/s11357-024-01168-2. Epub 2024 Apr 29.

Authors

Nikhil N Chaudhari^{1

2}, Phoebe E Imms², Nahian F Chowdhury², Margaret Gatz³, Benjamin C Trumble⁴, Wendy J Mack⁵, E Meng Law^{6

7

8}, M Linda Sutherland⁹, James D Sutherland⁹, Christopher J Rowan^{10

11}, L Samuel Wann¹², Adel H Allam¹³, Randall C Thompson¹⁴, David E Michalik^{15

16}, Michael Miyamoto¹⁷, Guido Lombardi¹⁸, Daniel K Cummings^{19

20}, Edmond Seabright¹⁹, Sarah Alami¹⁹, Angela R Garcia⁴, Daniel E Rodriguez²¹, Raul Quispe Gutierrez²², Adrian J Copajira²², Paul L Hooper¹⁹, Kenneth H Buetow⁴, Jonathan Stieglitz²³, Michael D Gurven²⁴, Gregory S Thomas^{9

25}, Hillard S Kaplan²⁰, Caleb E Finch^{2

26}, Andrei Irimia^{27

28

29}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Center for Economic and Social Research, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Center for Evolution & Medicine, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
⁵ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ iBRAIN Research Laboratory, Departments of Neuroscience, Computer Systems and Electrical Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁷ Department of Radiology, The Alfred Health Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁹ MemorialCare Health Systems, Fountain Valley, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Renown Institute for Heart and Vascular Health, Reno, NV, USA.
¹¹ School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
¹² Division of Cardiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
¹³ Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Al Mikhaym Al Daem, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁴ Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA.
¹⁶ MemorialCare Miller Children's & Women's Hospital, Long Beach Medical Center, Long Beach, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Division of Cardiology, Mission Heritage Medical Group, Providence Health, Mission Viejo, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
¹⁹ Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
²⁰ Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.
²¹ Institute of Biomedical Research, San Simon University, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
²² Tsimane Health and Life History Project, San Borja, Beni, Bolivia.
²³ Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 1 Capitol University, Toulouse, France.
²⁴ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
²⁵ Division of Cardiology, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA.
²⁶ Departments of Biological Sciences, Anthropology and Psychology, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
²⁷ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. irimia@usc.edu.
²⁸ Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. irimia@usc.edu.
²⁹ Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. irimia@usc.edu.

Abstract

Industrialized environments, despite benefits such as higher levels of formal education and lower rates of infections, can also have pernicious impacts upon brain atrophy. Partly for this reason, comparing age-related brain volume trajectories between industrialized and non-industrialized populations can help to suggest lifestyle correlates of brain health. The Tsimane, indigenous to the Bolivian Amazon, derive their subsistence from foraging and horticulture and are physically active. The Moseten, a mixed-ethnicity farming population, are physically active but less than the Tsimane. Within both populations (N = 1024; age range = 46-83), we calculated regional brain volumes from computed tomography and compared their cross-sectional trends with age to those of UK Biobank (UKBB) participants (N = 19,973; same age range). Surprisingly among Tsimane and Moseten (T/M) males, some parietal and occipital structures mediating visuospatial abilities exhibit small but significant increases in regional volume with age. UKBB males exhibit a steeper negative trend of regional volume with age in frontal and temporal structures compared to T/M males. However, T/M females exhibit significantly steeper rates of brain volume decrease with age compared to UKBB females, particularly for some cerebro-cortical structures (e.g., left subparietal cortex). Across the three populations, observed trends exhibit no interhemispheric asymmetry. In conclusion, the age-related rate of regional brain volume change may differ by lifestyle and sex. The lack of brain volume reduction with age is not known to exist in other human population, highlighting the putative role of lifestyle in constraining regional brain atrophy and promoting elements of non-industrialized lifestyle like higher physical activity.

Keywords: Brain aging; Cortex; Neurodegeneration.

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging / physiology
Atrophy
Bolivia / epidemiology
Brain* / diagnostic imaging
Brain* / pathology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Indians, South American*
Life Style
Male
Middle Aged
Organ Size
Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Abstract

MeSH terms

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