AUTHOR=Palix Cassandre , Chauveau Léa , Felisatti Francesca , Chocat Anne , Coulbault Laurent , Hébert Oriane , Mézenge Florence , Landeau Brigitte , Haudry Sacha , Fauvel Séverine , Collette Fabienne , Klimecki Olga , Marchant Natalie L. , De La Sayette Vincent , Vivien Denis , Chételat Gaël , Poisnel Géraldine ,  the Medit-Ageing Research Group 

TITLE=Allostatic load, a measure of cumulative physiological stress, impairs brain structure but not β-accumulation in older adults: an exploratory study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 17 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2025.1508677

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2025.1508677

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=IntroductionAllostatic load (AL) is a composite score of progressive physiological dysregulations in response to long-term exposure to everyday stress. Despite growing interest, limited research has focused on links with cerebral and cognitive aspects of aging and with markers sensitive to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a healthy elderly population and with a multimodal approach.MethodsAt baseline, 111 older adults (without cognitive impairment) from the Age-Well trial completed blood and anthropometric markers collection, cognitive assessments and multimodal neuroimaging within 3 months.ResultsAL was negatively associated with gray matter volume and white matter integrity within frontal and temporal regions and poorer attentional performance.DiscussionAL is linked to structural brain integrity in aging- and stress-sensitive regions but not with AD-related markers (β-amyloid load) and only in two AD-sensitive brain regions in older adults. These results highlight the potential interest of AL as a sensitive index of stress-induced brain aging.