Hippocampal Subfield Volumes and Spatial Memory Performance in Older Adults At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes.
7 affiliations
- 1Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- 2Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- 3Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- 4Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- 5Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- 6Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- 7School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
Older adults at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) are more likely to experience accelerated cognitive aging and neurodegeneration due to impaired metabolism in the hippocampus. However, the precise relationship between T2D risk factors, brain volumes (i.e., gray matter, white matter, hippocampus subfields), and hippocampus-dependent functions (i.e., spatial pattern separation, a component of spatial memory) remains unexplored. To investigate these relationships in this cross-sectional study, 60 older adults at risk for T2D (e.g., high BMI or elevated A1c levels) completed a touchscreen-based spatial pattern separation behavioral task-the Trial-Unique delayed Nonmatching-to-Location (TUNL) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). HippUnfold was utilized to segment the hippocampus from high-resolution, T₁-weighted images. We found positive correlations between A1c levels and volumes of the dentate gyrus (DG) and cornu ammonis (CA) 2, indicating that higher A1c was associated with larger volumes of hippocampal subregions. Additionally, TUNL accuracy was correlated with gray matter and distinct hippocampus subfield volumes (i.e., subiculum, CA1, and CA4), with larger volumes associated with better spatial memory performance. Understanding early structural changes in T2D risk allows us to further characterize changes in brain health associated with metabolic dysfunction.
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BibTeX
@article{alshaikh2026hippocampal,
title = {{Hippocampal Subfield Volumes and Spatial Memory Performance in Older Adults At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes.}},
author = {Jennifer Hanna Al-Shaikh and Olivia R Ghosh-Swaby and Ali R Khan and Jane Thornton and Timothy J Bussey and Lisa M Saksida and Daniel Palmer and Teresa Liu-Ambrose and Lindsay S Nagamatsu},
journal = {Hippocampus},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/hipo.70144},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42951841},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hippocampal Subfield Volumes and Spatial Memory Performance in Older Adults At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes.
AU - Jennifer Hanna Al-Shaikh
AU - Olivia R Ghosh-Swaby
AU - Ali R Khan
AU - Jane Thornton
AU - Timothy J Bussey
AU - Lisa M Saksida
AU - Daniel Palmer
AU - Teresa Liu-Ambrose
AU - Lindsay S Nagamatsu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - Hippocampus
DO - 10.1002/hipo.70144
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42951841
AB - Older adults at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) are more likely to experience accelerated cognitive aging and neurodegeneration due to impaired metabolism in the hippocampus. However, the precise relationship between T2D risk factors, brain volumes (i.e., gray matter, white matter, hippocampus subfields), and hippocampus-dependent functions (i.e., spatial pattern separation, a component of spatial memory) remains unexplored. To investigate these relationships in this cross-sectional study, 60 older adults at risk for T2D (e.g., high BMI or elevated A1c levels) completed a touchscreen-based spatial pattern separation behavioral task-the Trial-Unique delayed Nonmatching-to-Location (TUNL) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). HippUnfold was utilized to segment the hippocampus from high-resolution, T₁-weighted images. We found positive correlations between A1c levels and volumes of the dentate gyrus (DG) and cornu ammonis (CA) 2, indicating that higher A1c was associated with larger volumes of hippocampal subregions. Additionally, TUNL accuracy was correlated with gray matter and distinct hippocampus subfield volumes (i.e., subiculum, CA1, and CA4), with larger volumes associated with better spatial memory performance. Understanding early structural changes in T2D risk allows us to further characterize changes in brain health associated with metabolic dysfunction.
SN - 1050-9631
SN - 1098-1063
ER -