ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1608995
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of nutrition on brain healthView all 3 articles
Associations Between Dietary Fiber Intake and Hippocampal Gray Matter Volume
Provisionally accepted
Raghav Pallapothu1*
Roger D Newman-Norlund1*
Makayla Gibson1
Pranesh Rajesh Kannan1Sriya Pallapothu1
Chris Rorden1Leo Bonilha2Julius Fridriksson3- 1Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, Kentucky, United States
- 2Department of Neurology, School of Medicine Columbia, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
- 3Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
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Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) are associated with significant societal costs and economic burdens. Prior research has found that ADRD is associated with decreases in cortical gray matter volume (GMV) in the hippocampus. This exploratory cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between total dietary fiber concentration and regional GMV in a cohort of 190 healthy adults aged 20 to 79 years who completed the 2015 National Health Interview Survey Supplement and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of the University of South Carolina’s Aging Brain Cohort (ABC) study. Hippocampal gray matter volume was quantified using the CAT12 voxel-based morphometry toolbox, and partial correlations between GMV and dietary measures were assessed using Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient. Our exploratory analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between dietary fiber consumption and GMV in the right hippocampus and right parahippocampal gyrus, when controlling for age, race, sex, and median household income within participant zip code. Dietary fiber was also correlated with the MoCA attention/concentration and language subscores. These data are compatible with the hypothesis that dietary fiber may exert neuroprotective effects, and this may have implications for dietary recommendations aimed at reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Keywords: Brain, gray matter volume, Fiber, Alzheimer's Disease brain, Dementia
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pallapothu, Newman-Norlund, Gibson, Kannan, Pallapothu, Rorden, Bonilha and Fridriksson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Raghav Pallapothu, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, 29208, Kentucky, United States
Roger D Newman-Norlund, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, 29208, Kentucky, United States
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