TY - JOUR T1 - Brain aging differs with cognitive ability regardless of education JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2022.02.09.479697 SP - 2022.02.09.479697 AU - Kristine B. Walhovd AU - Lars Nyberg AU - Ulman Lindenberger AU - Fredrik Magnussen AU - Inge K. Amlien AU - Øystein Sørensen AU - Yunpeng Wang AU - Athanasia M. Mowinckel AU - Rogier A. Kievit AU - Klaus. P. Ebmeier AU - David Bartrés-Faz AU - Simone Kühn AU - Carl-Johan Boraxbekk AU - Paolo Ghisletta AU - Kathrine Skak Madsen AU - Willliam F.C. Baaré AU - Enikő Zsoldos AU - Brenda Penninx AU - Anders M. Fjell Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/10/2022.02.09.479697.abstract N2 - Higher general cognitive ability (GCA) is associated with lower risk of neurodegenerative disorders, but neural mechanisms are unknown. GCA could be associated with more cortical tissue, from young age, i.e. brain reserve, or less cortical atrophy in adulthood, i.e. brain maintenance. Controlling for education, we investigated the relative association of GCA with reserve and maintenance of cortical volume, -area and -thickness through the adult lifespan, using multiple longitudinal brain imaging cohorts (n = 3327, 7002 MRI scans, baseline age 20-88 years, followed-up up to 11 years). There were widespread positive relationships between GCA and cortical characteristics (level-level associations). In select regions, higher baseline GCA was associated with less atrophy over time (level-change associations). Relationships remained when controlling for polygenic scores for both GCA and education. Our findings suggest that higher GCA is associated with cortical volumes by both brain reserve and -maintenance mechanisms through the adult lifespan.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -