Brain Aging

New-Onset Loneliness Accelerated Cognitive Decline in 635 Older Adults: ELSA Longitudinal Analysis

May 24, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal analysis in the Journal of Affective Disorders tracked 635 older adults with new-onset loneliness and found that cognitive decline matched controls before loneliness began, then accelerated after onset, especially when loneliness persisted. Key Findings Pre-loneliness cognitive trajectories were identical: Before the first reported episode of loneliness, cognitive scores in 635 future-lonely …

Parkinson’s Patients Had a Prominent Mood-Sleep Cluster

May 23, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 preprint on medRxiv using the Harvard Biomarkers Study found that 43% of Parkinson’s disease patients had depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, or restless legs syndrome, compared with 21% of controls. Key Findings 1,224-person cohort: Researchers analyzed 933 Parkinson’s disease cases and 291 controls in the Harvard Biomarkers Study. 43% mood-sleep burden: At least …

AT(N) Blood Biomarkers Were Often Abnormal in Older Adults With Epilepsy

May 23, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint applied the AT(N) framework, an Alzheimer’s disease biomarker system for amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration, to 84 older adults with focal epilepsy and found that only 32.1% had normal blood biomarkers, while early-onset epilepsy carried higher odds of biomarker abnormality. Key Findings Epilepsy cohort: Researchers analyzed focal epilepsy participants from the …

Cannabis After First Pregnancy Was Not Linked to Hypertension in nuMoM2b Study

May 21, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 study in O&G Open found that cannabis exposure 2–7 years after a first pregnancy was not associated with incident hypertension after adjustment in the nuMoM2b Heart Health Study. Key Findings No adjusted hypertension association: Cannabis exposure was not associated with incident hypertension after adjustment (AOR 1.05; 95% CI, 0.63-1.76). 4,079-person analysis: Researchers …

Childhood and Adult Adversity Linked to Biological Aging Markers

May 18, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 BMC Medicine study of UK Biobank adults linked adversity in both childhood and adulthood to higher frailty, older metabolomic age profiles, lower grip strength, and some telomere differences, with the clearest associations in people reporting multiple adverse events. Key Findings Large cohort: The study analyzed up to 153,557 middle-aged and older UK …

Alzheimer’s Capillary Blood Biomarkers Correlated With Cognition

May 17, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Nature Communications found that self-administered finger-prick blood tests for phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217), an Alzheimer’s tau marker, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte-injury marker, correlated with cognition and function in older adults. Key Findings Remote sampling: Participants used capillary finger-prick blood collection rather than standard clinic-based venous blood …

Olfactory MRI Radiomics Linked pTau217 to Alzheimer’s Cognition

May 15, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 article-in-press study in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy found that olfactory-region MRI radiomics, a method that turns brain scans into quantitative texture and shape features, linked blood pTau217, a tau-related Alzheimer’s disease biomarker, with cognitive impairment across three cohorts. Key Findings Three Alzheimer’s cohorts were matched: Researchers matched 122 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients …

Three or More Live Births Was the Only Reproductive Factor Linked to Lower Stroke Risk in Framingham Women

May 25, 2026May 14, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 study in the Journal of the American Heart Association followed 1,882 stroke-free women from the Framingham Heart Study for a median of 18 years and found that having three or more live births was associated with a reduced risk of clinical stroke and lower MRI markers of vascular brain injury — the …

Acute and Post-Acute Settings Initiated Most Cognition-Altering Prescriptions in Older Adults With Dementia

May 25, 2026May 14, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 study in JAMA Network Open analyzed Medicare claims for adults 66+ from 2008 to 2021 and found that cognition-altering medications — antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, hypnotics, anticholinergics — were disproportionately initiated in emergency rooms, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities rather than doctors’ offices, especially in dementia patients (43% of antipsychotic starts vs 22% of …

SimulAD Modeled Amyloid Clearance in Alzheimer’s Trials

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 by BrainASAP

TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint tested SimulAD, an Alzheimer’s disease progression simulator, and reported that it reproduced mean amyloid-clearance results within 5% error across six major phase III anti-amyloid trials while also separating positive trials from null trials in retrospective power analyses. Key Findings Six phase III trials: Researchers retrospectively simulated TRAILBLAZER-ALZ2, CLARITY AD, EMERGE, …

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