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Associations Between Longitudinal Handgrip Strength and Striatal Dopamine in Aging

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Patrick Cao^1,2, Hsiang-Yu Chen¹, Claire Ciampa³, Jacob Hooker², Anne Berry^1,4; ¹Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA, ²Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02155, USA, ³Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA, ⁴Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA

Handgrip strength (HGS) is considered an indicator of overall health and a predictor of cognitive function in old age. Emerging evidence has linked HGS to neural factors and has suggested that its relationship to cognition may result from shared age-related neural changes. However, the neural substrates of HGS remain understudied. Aging is associated with changes in striatal dopamine, which has been implicated in both motor and cognitive performance, particularly for executive function tasks. Thus, the integrity of striatal dopamine systems represents a candidate neurochemical factor underlying HGS-cognition associations in aging. We examined the relationship between striatal dopamine function and longitudinal HGS among cognitively unimpaired right-handed older adults (n=45, mean age=70.3, 25 female). Complementary analyses of longitudinal HGS data in a larger sample (n=159, mean age=70.9, 89 female) confirmed HGS decline was associated with poorer executive function as measured by the digit span test (t=2.00, p=.047). Participants completed MR-PET scanning with [18F]fluoro-l-m-tyrosine ([18F]FMT; n=31, mean age=70.1, 17 female) or [11C]raclopride (n=20, mean age=69.4, 10 female) to assess striatal dopamine synthesis capacity or D2/3 receptor availability respectively. We found significant interaction effects of [18F]FMT x Time and [11C]raclopride x Time such that lower dopamine synthesis capacity (t=3.91, p<.001) and lower D2/3 receptor availability (t=3.12, p=.006) in the left ventral striatum were both associated with steeper HGS decline. Additionally, lower D2/3 receptor availability was associated with longitudinal increases in handgrip fatigue (t=-2.70, p=0.02). Though correlational, our analyses suggest dopamine function may be a critical factor underlying maintenance of handgrip strength in older age.

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