Open AccessThe Role of Race in Relations of Social Support to Hippocampal Volumes Among Older Adults
Author(s) -
Desirée Bygrave,
C Gerassimakis,
Denée T. Mwendwa,
Güray Erus,
Christos Davatzikos,
Regina Wright
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
research on aging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.787
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1552-7573
pISSN - 0164-0275
DOI - 10.1177/01640275211017268
Subject(s) - hippocampal formation , race (biology) , psychology , social support , african american , white matter , gerontology , association (psychology) , hippocampus , demography , developmental psychology , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , neuroscience , social psychology , biology , sociology , ethnology , botany , radiology , psychotherapist
Evidence suggests social support may buffer brain pathology. However, neither its association with hippocampal volume, a marker of Alzheimer's disease risk, nor the role of race in this association has been fully investigated. Multiple regression analyses examined relations of total social support to magnetic resonance imaging-assessed gray matter (GM) hippocampal volumes in the total sample ( n = 165; mean age = 68.48 year), and in race-stratified models of African American and White older adults, adjusting for select covariates. Results showed greater social support was associated with greater GM hippocampal volumes among African American older adults only ( p < .01). Our findings suggest greater total social support may play a role in supporting the hippocampus, particularly among African American older adults, who had lower hippocampal volumes than their White counterparts. Further research is needed to test these questions longitudinally and examine which aspects of social support may promote hippocampal integrity, specifically.