Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally
Background: Cognitive aging is a complex process that impacts human behavior. Identifying the factors that preserve cognitive functioning is a public health priority, given that 20% of the US population will be at least 65 years old in the next decade. Biopsychosocial determinants of cognitive decli...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354624000103 |
| _version_ | 1797271280700882944 |
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| author | Ameanté Payen James R. Bateman Michael J. Persin Jeanette M. Bennett |
| author_facet | Ameanté Payen James R. Bateman Michael J. Persin Jeanette M. Bennett |
| author_sort | Ameanté Payen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Cognitive aging is a complex process that impacts human behavior. Identifying the factors that preserve cognitive functioning is a public health priority, given that 20% of the US population will be at least 65 years old in the next decade. Biopsychosocial determinants of cognitive decline across the lifespan are often examined as ecological factors that independently moderate cognitive aging, despite the known complexity surrounding these relationships. Objective: We aimed to address this gap by exploring the synergistic and simultaneous relationship between risk and protective factors on cognitive functioning. Method: Using the MIDUS study datasets, we examined the relationships among physiological markers, friendship quality, and global cognition functioning, concurrently and longitudinally over ten years. Our participants included 929 healthy (417 men, 512 women) adults (average age at Time 1: 54.6 ± 11.6 years). Exploratory analyses examining the effects of racial minority status were also conducted. Results: Cross-sectionally, age, and friendship quality moderated the relationship between vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vm-HRV) and cognition such that younger adults with greater friendship quality had a negative relationship between vm-HRV and cognitive performance; our unexpected finding suggests the heart-brain relationship is sensitive to the biopsychosocial environment. Longitudinally, higher IL-6 levels at Time 1 predicted poorer cognitive performance a decade later, but only among those with greater levels of friendship quality, especially for white-identifying individuals. Conclusions: The relationships among physiological risk factors, social protective factors and cognitive functioning appear to be temporally different during mid-adulthood. Given many of the whole sample findings were not replicated within the racial minority subgroup, we suggest that these relationships should be examined in a larger and more diverse racial minority sample to determine whether this study lacked the power necessary to detect a relationship or if the relationships are in fact different by racial minority sub-group. In addition, future research should overcome the study's reliance on healthy adults and self-report measures of friendship quality by including adults with pre-existing cognitive impairments, and employing more real-time measures of friendship quality, such as daily diary or ecological momentary assessment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T13:59:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca0e034eecb9478da86f9947c6754c4f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2666-3546 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T13:59:31Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca0e034eecb9478da86f9947c6754c4f2024-03-07T05:30:19ZengElsevierBrain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health2666-35462024-03-0136100732Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinallyAmeanté Payen0James R. Bateman1Michael J. Persin2Jeanette M. Bennett3Health Psychology PhD Program, UNC Charlotte, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, United States; Alzhiemer's Disease Research Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, United StatesDepartment of Psychological Science, UNC Charlotte, United StatesHealth Psychology PhD Program, UNC Charlotte, United States; Department of Psychological Science, UNC Charlotte, United States; Corresponding author. Biological and Health Psychology, University City Blvd, 4018 Colvard, Charlotte, NC 28223, United States.Background: Cognitive aging is a complex process that impacts human behavior. Identifying the factors that preserve cognitive functioning is a public health priority, given that 20% of the US population will be at least 65 years old in the next decade. Biopsychosocial determinants of cognitive decline across the lifespan are often examined as ecological factors that independently moderate cognitive aging, despite the known complexity surrounding these relationships. Objective: We aimed to address this gap by exploring the synergistic and simultaneous relationship between risk and protective factors on cognitive functioning. Method: Using the MIDUS study datasets, we examined the relationships among physiological markers, friendship quality, and global cognition functioning, concurrently and longitudinally over ten years. Our participants included 929 healthy (417 men, 512 women) adults (average age at Time 1: 54.6 ± 11.6 years). Exploratory analyses examining the effects of racial minority status were also conducted. Results: Cross-sectionally, age, and friendship quality moderated the relationship between vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vm-HRV) and cognition such that younger adults with greater friendship quality had a negative relationship between vm-HRV and cognitive performance; our unexpected finding suggests the heart-brain relationship is sensitive to the biopsychosocial environment. Longitudinally, higher IL-6 levels at Time 1 predicted poorer cognitive performance a decade later, but only among those with greater levels of friendship quality, especially for white-identifying individuals. Conclusions: The relationships among physiological risk factors, social protective factors and cognitive functioning appear to be temporally different during mid-adulthood. Given many of the whole sample findings were not replicated within the racial minority subgroup, we suggest that these relationships should be examined in a larger and more diverse racial minority sample to determine whether this study lacked the power necessary to detect a relationship or if the relationships are in fact different by racial minority sub-group. In addition, future research should overcome the study's reliance on healthy adults and self-report measures of friendship quality by including adults with pre-existing cognitive impairments, and employing more real-time measures of friendship quality, such as daily diary or ecological momentary assessment.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354624000103AgingBiomarkersHRVIL-6CRPCognitive functioning |
| spellingShingle | Ameanté Payen James R. Bateman Michael J. Persin Jeanette M. Bennett Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health Aging Biomarkers HRV IL-6 CRP Cognitive functioning |
| title | Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| title_full | Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| title_fullStr | Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| title_full_unstemmed | Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| title_short | Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| title_sort | biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally |
| topic | Aging Biomarkers HRV IL-6 CRP Cognitive functioning |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354624000103 |
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