Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jul 14:1280:186-94.
doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.05.032. Epub 2009 May 20.

Modifiers of cognitive function and brain structure in middle-aged and elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Hannah Bruehl  1 , Oliver T Wolf, Victoria Sweat, Aziz Tirsi, Stephen Richardson, Antonio Convit
Affiliations

Modifiers of cognitive function and brain structure in middle-aged and elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Hannah Bruehl et al. Brain Res. .

Abstract

Cognitive deficits and hippocampal atrophy, features that are shared with aging and dementia, have been described in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). T2DM is associated with obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis abnormalities and inflammation, all of which have been shown to negatively impact the brain. However, since most reports in T2DM focused on glycemic control, the relative contribution of these modifying factors to the impairments observed in T2DM remains unclear. We contrasted 41 middle-aged dementia-free volunteers with T2DM (on average 7 years since diagnosis) with 47 age-, education-, and gender-matched non-insulin resistant controls on cognition and brain volumes. HPA axis activity and other modifiers that accompany T2DM were assessed to determine their impact on brain and cognition. Individuals with T2DM had specific verbal declarative memory deficits, reduced hippocampal and prefrontal volumes, and impaired HPA axis feedback control. Diminished cortisol suppression after dexamethasone and dyslipidemia were associated with decreased cognitive performance, whereas obesity was negatively related to hippocampal volume. Moreover, prefrontal volume was influenced by worse glycemic control. Thus, obesity and altered cortisol levels may contribute to the impact of T2DM on the hippocampal formation, resulting in decreased verbal declarative memory performance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hippocampal volume (cc) decreases with increasing BMI (kg/m2)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Allen KV, Frier BM, Strachan MWJ. The relationship between type 2 diabetes and cognitive dysfunction: longitudinal studies and their methodological limitations. European Journal of Pharmacology. 2004;490:169–175. - PubMed
    1. Arkin JM, Alsdorf R, Bigornia S, Palmisano J, Beal R, Istfan N, Hess D, Apovian CM, Gokce N. Relation of Cumulative Weight Burden to Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction in Obesity. The American Journal of Cardiology. 2008;101:98–101. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arvanitakis Z, Schneider JA, Wilson RS, Li Y, Arnold SE, Wang Z, Bennett DA. Diabetes is related to cerebral infarction but not to AD pathology in older persons. Neurology. 2006;67:1960–1965. - PubMed
    1. Awad N, Gagnon M, Messier C. The relationship between impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes, and cognitive function. Journal Of Clinical And Experimental Neuropsychology: Official Journal Of The International Neuropsychological Society. 2004;26:1044–1080. - PubMed
    1. Beason-Held LL, Moghekar A, Zonderman AB, Kraut MA, Resnick SM. Longitudinal Changes in Cerebral Blood Flow in the Older Hypertensive Brain. Stroke. 2007;38:1766–1773. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

-