Researchers from a variety of institutes have discovered a new link between normal cognitive deficits occurring naturally with increasing age, and the cognitive deficits associated with Type 2 Diabetes.
The study (Antal et al, 2022) made use of a comprehensive dataset that included neuroimaging data. This was combined with an analysis of healthy control scans and medical backgrounds.
The researchers discovered that those with T2DM typically had a faster neuro-ageing process accompanied by deficits than did those in the healthy group.
Furthermore, the researchers found areas where the grey matter was affected such as the ventral striatum, cerebellum, and premotor cortex as well as several other areas.
The researchers found that while the degeneration in specific areas was similar to that found in normal ageing, the effects started earlier.
References:
Botond Antal, Liam P McMahon, Syed Fahad Sultan, Andrew Lithen, Deborah J Wexler, Bradford Dickerson, Eva-Maria Ratai, Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi (2022) Type 2 diabetes mellitus accelerates brain aging and cognitive decline: Complementary findings from UK Biobank and meta-analyses eLife 11:e73138 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73138
image credits: Sabine_999/pixabay
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