Hyperglycemia is associated with subtle brain injury and impaired attention and memory, even in young adults, indicating that brain injury is an early manifestation of impaired glucose metabolism, according to a sample of 2,126 dementia-free participants in the Framingham Heart Study third-generation cohort.
Researchers administered cognitive testing of memory, abstract reasoning, visual perception, attention, and executive function, plus brain MRI examination in a subset of participants.
They found diabetes was associated with worse memory, visual perceptions, and attention performance; increased white matter hyperintensity; and decreased total cerebral brain and occipital lobar gray matter volumes.
Investigators noted the link between diabetes and attention and memory was mediated through occipital and frontal atrophy, and also through hippocampal atrophy.
Citation: Weinstein G, Maillard P, Himali JJ, et al. Glucose indices are associated with cognitive and structural brain measures in young adults. Neurology. 2015;84(23):2329-2337. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001655.