Here, we investigated whether fractional anisotropy (FA) of hippocampus-relevant white-matter tracts mediates the association between baseline Mediterranean diet adherence (MeDiAd) and verbal episodic memory over four years. Participants were healthy older adults with and without subjective cognitive decline and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment from the DELCODE cohort study ( = 376; age: 71.47 ± 6.09 years; 48.7% female). MeDiAd and diffusion data were obtained at baseline. Verbal episodic memory was assessed at baseline and four yearly follow-ups. The associations between baseline MeDiAd and white matter, and verbal episodic memory’s and over four years were tested with latent growth curve modeling. Baseline MeDiAd was associated with verbal episodic memory four years later (95% confidence interval, CI [0.01, 0.32]) but not with its rate of change over this period. Baseline Fornix FA mediated – and, thus, explained – that association (95% CI [0.002, 0.09]). Fornix FA may be an appropriate response biomarker of Mediterranean diet interventions on verbal memory in older adults.

中文翻译：

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在没有痴呆的老年人中，穹窿分数各向异性介导四年后地中海饮食依从性与记忆力之间的关联

在这里，我们研究了四年来海马相关白质束的分数各向异性 (FA) 是否介导基线地中海饮食依从性 (MeDiAd) 和言语情景记忆之间的关联。参与者是 DELCODE 队列研究中患有或不患有主观认知衰退的健康老年人以及患有遗忘性轻度认知障碍的患者（= 376；年龄：71.47 ± 6.09 岁；48.7% 女性）。MeDiAd 和扩散数据是在基线时获得的。在基线和四年随访时评估言语情景记忆。使用潜在生长曲线模型测试了基线 MeDiAd 和白质以及四年多的言语情景记忆之间的关联。基线 MeDiAd 与四年后的言语情景记忆相关（95% 置信区间，CI [0.01, 0.32]），但与其在此期间的变化率无关。基线穹窿 FA 介导并因此解释了这种关联（95% CI [0.002, 0.09]）。Fornix FA 可能是地中海饮食干预对老年人言语记忆的适当反应生物标志物。