The first 30 months of ORACLE were spent to robustly set-up the data-collection part of this project and to perform the first set of analyses pertaining to the various objectives.
The following major milestones can be reported:
- I purchased and installed the electronic walkway (i.e. GAITRite) to measure gait patterns in children and adults (Generation R).
- I implemented new MRI-sequences in both studies to measure perfusion of the brain.
- In summer 2017, I successfully initiated MRI-scanning, gait assessment and cognitive testing of parents in Generation R
The following major deliverables and results can be reported:
- A total of 1040 parents have been scheduled for MRI, cognitive testing and gait assessment. We are on schedule to finish this part of the data collection by end of 2019 / early 2020.
- The full set of 2000 children with perfusion-MRI and gait assessment has been completed.
- The full set of 2000 persons from the Rotterdam Study with perfusion-MRI measurement has been completed.
The following major findings can be reported:
- We have demonstrated life-course trajectories of the circulation, especially the small vessels. We found that arterioles and venules have their largest diameter in childhood and from that point onwards start decreasing in size (Figure 2). In other words, there seems no 'developmental' phase in childhood towards larger arterioles. Furthermore, we found that the narrowing of the small vessels is paralleled by an increase in blood pressure, especially in mid-life.
- We studied how the association between blood pressure and cognition changes over the life-course. We found that in children there is a very weak link between diastolic blood pressure and cognition. In contrast, in a middle-aged and elderly population this link is more solid and present for both diastolic and systolic blood pressure.
- We have shown that markers of maximum brain reserve, i.e. intracranial volume, and maximum cognitive reserve, i.e. education, both relate to the risk of Alzheimer. However, this effect strongly attenuates when taking into account brain size and cognitive function later in life. It seems thus, that the effect of degeneration is stronger than the effect of reserve.
- We found a strong interaction effect between brain size and cognitive functioning, indicating that both structure and function of the brain are important aspects and show synergy in maintaining brain health (Figure 3).
