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. 2021 Jan 13:12:622321.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.622321. eCollection 2020.

Do High Mental Demands at Work Protect Cognitive Health in Old Age via Hippocampal Volume? Results From a Community Sample

Francisca S Rodriguez  1   2   3   4 , Sebastian Huhn  5   6   7 , William A Vega  8 , Maria P Aranda  8 , Matthias L Schroeter  5   6 , Christoph Engel  4   9 , Ronny Baber  4   10 , Ralph Burkhardt  10 , Markus Löffler  4   9 , Joachim Thiery  10 , Arno Villringer  5   6 , Tobias Luck  11 , Steffi G Riedel-Heller  3 , A Veronica Witte  5   6   7
Affiliations

Do High Mental Demands at Work Protect Cognitive Health in Old Age via Hippocampal Volume? Results From a Community Sample

Francisca S Rodriguez et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

As higher mental demands at work are associated with lower dementia risk and a key symptom of dementia is hippocampal atrophy, the study aimed at investigating the association between mental demands at work and hippocampal volume. We analyzed data from the population-based LIFE-Adult-Study in Leipzig, Germany (n = 1,409, age 40-80). Hippocampal volumes were measured via three-dimensional Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; 3D MP-RAGE) and mental demands at work were classified via the O*NET database. Linear regression analyses adjusted for gender, age, education, APOE e4-allele, hypertension, and diabetes revealed associations between higher demands in "language and knowledge," "information processing," and "creativity" at work on larger white and gray matter volume and better cognitive functioning with "creativity" having stronger effects for people not yet retired. Among retired individuals, higher demands in "pattern detection" were associated with larger white matter volume as well as larger hippocampal subfields CA2/CA3, suggesting a retention effect later in life. There were no other relevant associations with hippocampal volume. Our findings do not support the idea that mental demands at work protect cognitive health via hippocampal volume or brain volume. Further research may clarify through what mechanism mentally demanding activities influence specifically dementia pathology in the brain.

Keywords: aging; cognitive functioning; hippocampus; intellectual activities; mental demands.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Performance in the Trail Making Test B and the Verbal fluency test by the level of mental demands at work (MDW) and age, estimated via regression analyses separate for those that are retired and those that are not retired an adjusted for age, gender, education, APOE e4-allele, hypertension, and diabetes. (A) Level of the mental work demand, Language & Knowledge on performance in the Trail Making Test B. (B) Level of the mental work demand, Information Processing on performance in the Trail Making Test B. (C) Level of the mental work demand, Pattern Detection on performance in the Trail Making Test B. (D) Level of the mental work demand, Language & Knowledge on performance in the Verbal Fluency Test. (E) Level of the mental work demand, Information Processing on performance in the Verbal Fluency Test. (F) Level of the mental workdemand, Pattern Detection on performance in the Verbal Fluency Test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
White matter and gray matter volume by the level of MDW and age, estimated via regression analyses separate for those that are retired and those that are not retired and adjusted for age, gender, education, APOE e4-allele, hypertension, and diabetes. (A) Level of the mental work demand, Language & Knowledge on white matter volume. (B) Level of the mental work demand, Information Processing on white matter volume. (C) Level of the mental work demand, Pattern Detection on white matter volume. (D) Level of the mental work demand, Language & Knowledge on gray matter volume. (E) Level of the mental work demand, Information Processing on gray matter volume. (F) Level of the mental work demand, Pattern Detection on gray matter volume.
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