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An analysis of MRI scans found higher estimated brain age in people with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, addiction and several psychiatric disorders. The associations varied by brain region, and the study does not show that the conditions cause faster aging.
A study of structural MRI scans found that Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, alcohol addiction and several psychiatric conditions were associated with brain age estimates higher than expected for a person’s chronological age. The research, published in PLOS Medicine, also found different patterns across brain regions, but it does not establish that the conditions cause accelerated brain aging.
Led by Shile Qi of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China, the team analyzed imaging data from 45,900 controls drawn from several brain imaging databases and compared them with scans from 2,698 people with a range of conditions. These included Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and alcohol or tobacco addiction.
The researchers used a measure called predictive age difference, or PAD. It compares a person’s actual age with an age estimated from brain imaging; a positive PAD indicates that the brain appears older than expected for that age. Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment had the strongest associations with higher PAD. Addiction and psychiatric disorders were also associated with higher values. The study found no overall PAD differences between the control group and people with ADHD or autism.
When the team examined regions rather than a single whole-brain estimate, the prefrontal cortex showed higher PAD across multiple disorders. Psychiatric conditions were associated with elevated PAD in the frontal and temporal lobes, while dementia was linked to higher PAD in the frontal and occipital cortex. Addiction showed a different distribution, including higher PAD in the default mode and salience networks, the putamen and the thalamus.
Distinct Brain Patterns Across Disorders
The findings suggest that one overall brain age score may not capture the same changes across every condition. Regional differences could help researchers investigate whether disorders are associated with distinct biological processes, rather than a single shared pattern of aging. The team also examined gene expression patterns and reported differences associated with particular conditions, offering possible leads for further work on those processes.
For readers, the results are an early research finding, not a diagnostic tool. PAD is an estimate derived from imaging, and this study does not show that an individual’s brain is literally aging faster in every respect. The researchers suggest that further study of the measure could contribute to future biomarkers or clarify biological pathways. No clinical use or ability to predict an individual’s course is established by the findings described in the report.
How Researchers Estimate Brain Age
Brain age studies use imaging data to estimate an age from features of the brain, then compare that estimate with a person’s chronological age. In this study, the difference is called predictive age difference. A positive value means the imaging-based estimate is older than the person’s actual age; it is a statistical comparison, not a direct measurement of how quickly the brain is changing over time.
The analysis brought together scans from several databases and groups with different diagnoses. The researchers compared average patterns across those groups, then looked at specific brain regions and gene transcription. This design can identify associations worth investigating, but it cannot by itself establish what came first or explain why a pattern appears. The authors report that the work was supported by research funding from Jiangsu Province and China’s National Natural Science Foundation; the funders had no role in the study’s design, analysis, publication decision or manuscript preparation.
“Different neurological disorders appear to leave different signatures on the brain aging clock, which may help researchers better understand the neural and biological pathways involved in these conditions.”
— The study authors
Limits of the Current Evidence
The reported results are correlations, not evidence of cause and effect. The study does not establish whether a condition contributes to a higher PAD, whether other factors affect both the condition and the scan pattern, or how the measure changes within an individual over time. The supplied report does not provide enough detail to assess the size of each association or how well PAD distinguishes one condition from another.
The researchers also note that some conditions, especially psychiatric disorders and addiction, commonly occur together. That overlap can make it difficult to separate the association linked to one diagnosis from effects associated with another. The analysis does not resolve those contributions, and its group-level patterns should not be read as a prediction for every person with a diagnosis.
Testing the Measure in Future Studies
The authors say closer study of PAD may help researchers identify biomarkers and investigate biological pathways associated with brain disorders. Further work would need to test whether the regional patterns can be reproduced and whether they add useful information beyond existing assessments. The report does not announce a clinical trial, a planned diagnostic application or a specific next publication date.
For now, the main development is a comparison across multiple conditions using MRI-derived age estimates. Whether PAD can become a reliable research or clinical marker remains open. Studies that account for overlapping diagnoses and follow people over time could help clarify how stable the observed associations are and what they may mean.
Key Questions
Which conditions had the strongest association with higher brain age estimates?
Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment had the strongest associations with higher predictive age difference in the study.
Does the study show that these disorders cause faster brain aging?
No. The findings are correlational and do not establish that a disorder causes accelerated brain aging.
What does a positive predictive age difference mean?
It means the age estimated from brain imaging is higher than the person’s chronological age. It is an estimate, not a direct measure of the rate of brain change.
Did ADHD and autism show higher brain age estimates?
The researchers reported no overall PAD difference between controls and people with ADHD or autism in this analysis.
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