Keywords
white matter hyperintensities, lesions, cognition, diet
Abstract
Leukoaraiosis, or White Matter Lesions (WMLs)/White Matter Hyperintensities (WMHs), are often considered markers of aging and neurodegeneration. White matter hyperintensities appear as lighter, hyperintense regions on T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and are physiologically characterized as demyelination and axonal loss reflected as microvascular lesions in cerebral white matter (Marseglia et. al., 2019). These anatomical landmarks are most seen in MRIs of elderly individuals. They can be associated with aging and cognitive decline, including affected frontal lobe function and episodic memory in the form of delayed recall performance and are linked to several cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension (Artero et al., 2004) and ischemic vascular dementia (Petkov et al., 2004). Recent investigations have assessed the impact of lifestyle factors, such as diet, on brain health among aging populations. Diet, as measured through participant recall and evaluated in questionnaires such as the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), has become an increasingly important standardized assessment in the evaluation of public health as it pertains to lifestyle factors. Specific nutrient-dense diets, as will be discussed, have been associated with a lower prevalence of WMHs and improved cognitive function, while poor diet quality has a positive association with WMHs. Understanding how diet can influence the integrity of brain white matter could provide new insight into how a healthy diet could mitigate the negative effects of brain aging and potentially provide benefits. The literature review aims to examine the theoretical background and objective data among various existing studies that assess how particular diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, and specific micronutrients could impact the structural integrity of the brain’s white matter, using various existing measures of diet quality, such as questionnaires or intake measurements, as well as brain imaging scans, to analyze their associations. The current analysis aims to assess associations between WMHs, and diet quality as measured by the HEI total score, with a hypothesis that a higher score in the subjective diet quality measure is associated with lower brain WMH burden. The analysis used cross-sectional data (n=501) from the study “Investigating Gains in Neurocognition in an Intervention Trial of Exercise” (IGNITE; mean age=69.7±3.68, 73.6% female). Sex-distinguished models were run with the hypothesis being supported by a significant negative association in exclusively female whole-brain WMHs (R = -0.11, p = 0.032) and periventricular WMHs (PVWMHs) (R = -0.12, p = 0.032). These findings suggest that there is a potential mitigation factor in the role of diet and associated WMH burden exclusively in females, as detailed in these measurements.
Thesis Completion Year
2025
Thesis Completion Semester
Spring
Thesis Chair
Chiarelli, Tina
College
College of Medicine
Department
Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences
Thesis Discipline
Biomedical Science - Neuroscience Track
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Length of Campus Access
None
Campus Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
STARS Citation
Urdaneta, Carla V., "Associations Between Brain White Matter Hyperintensities and Diet Quality in Cognitive Aging: A Cross-Sectional Assessment" (2025). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 232.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/hut2024/232
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