Human study · Aging · 14 Nov 2026
In 774 healthy older adults, lifestyle-linked brain patterns added little for predicting later cognition
Source: npj Aging
What the research found
A cross-sectional and 4-year analysis of healthy aging, from the 1000BRAINS study, was published online on 14 November 2026. It included 774 healthy older adults (mean age 67.0 years, standard deviation 6.7). The abstract does not give a sex split. Brain features tied to an overall lifestyle profile were compared with features tied to single lifestyle factors for 13 cognitive outcomes. The combined model did best for baseline figural memory, using regions in the salience and ventral attention, default mode, somatomotor, and visual networks. Those models did not consistently beat data-driven models that used only shared brain variation. Adding demographic variables improved prediction. Single lifestyle factors added little. No model reliably predicted cognitive change over 4 years. An observational scan study, not a program test. DOI 10.1038/s41514-026-00558-4. Not medical advice.
Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.
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