Association between vascular risk factors, as measured by the CAIDE risk score, and resting-state functional connectivity differs by menopause status

Poster Session C - Sunday, April 14, 2024, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Julia Kearley¹, Sophia LoParco¹, Bratislav Misic¹, M. Natasha Rajah²; ¹McGill University, ²Toronto Metropolitan University

Past work has found that natural menopause at midlife affects the brain’s intrinsic functional organization, as measured by resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). Vascular risk (VR), which has been found to increase during post-menopause, is associated with alterations in rsFC. However, it remains unknown whether VR may account for reported differences in rsFC between middle-aged pre- compared to post-menopause females, and if any observed differences relate to chronological age. To address this, we used behavioural partial least squares (B-PLS) connectivity analysis to examine the effect of menopause, age, and VR in 33 premenopausal (Pre-Meno) and 36 postmenopausal (Post-Meno) middle-aged females on rsFC. To measure VR, we computed subjects’ Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia Risk (CAIDE) scores. The B-PLS analysis identified two significant latent variables (LV2 and LV4, p’s<0.001). LV2 identified age effects in Post-Meno females where advanced age was associated with decreased within-network FC in the default mode, hippocampal, salience/ventral attention, and somatomotor networks, and decreased between-network FC involving hippocampal, dorsal attention, salience/ventral attention and somatomotor networks. LV4 identified an age vs. CAIDE effect in Pre-Meno females where increased age and lower CAIDE score was associated with decreased FC between the hippocampal and dorsal attention network, and with generalised increases in between-network FC, with the exception of the hippocampal network. We conclude that the association between CAIDE and Age with rsFC differs among menopause groups and that CAIDE risk may be more related to brain function in Pre- compared to Post-Meno females at midlife.

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