Search Results (3)

This study examines whether white matter integrity mediates the link between psychological stress and skin aging. This cross-sectional study included 92 healthy Japanese adults (aged 22–62 years) who underwent diffusion tensor imaging to obtain Fractional Anisotropy Brain Healthcare Quotients (FA-BHQs) for major white matter tracts, while skin aging was assessed using Motion Scan Technology. Correlation analyses revealed significant associations among stress, skin aging, and FA-BHQ in the corpus callosum (CC) and internal capsule (IC). Mediation analyses suggested, at the statistical level, a potential that the CC fully mediates the association between stress and skin aging. These findings suggest a relationship between interhemispheric white matter integrity, psychological stress, and skin aging in line with the concept of the brain–skin axis. Full article

Background/Objectives: In many societies, especially in highly masculine societies like Japan, being a man, getting older, engaging in knowledge work, and earning a high annual salary are seen as conditions for success. On the other hand, an increasing number of studies have shown that incorporating kawaii-ness into our lives can help maintain and improve happiness and well-being. Methods: Therefore, in this study, we employed a variable expressing the response to kawaii-ness together with four demographic variables (sex, age, income, and knowledge work), happiness, and fractional anisotropy brain healthcare quotient (FA-BHQ) which is derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images calculations to analyze the relationship between them. Results: The results of a path analysis using data obtained from 182 healthy men and women showed that kawaii-ness mediates the association between demographic variables and happiness, which is in turn associated with FA-BHQ. Furthermore, with the correlation analysis between happiness and individual FA regions, we were able to confirm that FA regions, including the limbic-thalamo-cortical pathway, which is responsible for emotional regulation, are related to happiness. Conclusions: These results indicate the following: Men, older people, people engaged in knowledge work, and people with high annual incomes avoid kawaii-ness; As a result, they are unable to obtain the sense of happiness that they should have; as a result, they are unable to keep their brains healthy, and their brain functions, including emotional regulation, are not functioning properly; This may prevent them from maintaining or improving their performance. This study is the first attempt to clarify the relationship between demographic scales, kawaii-ness, happiness, and brain conditions. Full article

This study investigated the effects of collagen hydrolysates (CH) on language cognitive function and brain structure. In this open-label study, 5 g CH was administered once a day for 4 weeks to 30 healthy participants aged 49–63 years. The primary outcome measures were the brain healthcare quotients based on gray matter volume (GM-BHQ) and fractional anisotropy (FA-BHQ). The secondary outcome measures were changes in scores between week 0 and week 4 for word list memory (WLM) and standard verbal paired associate learning (S-PA) tests as well as changes in the physical, mental, and role/social component summary scores of the Short Form-36(SF-36) quality of life instrument. CH ingestion resulted in significant improvements in FA-BHQ (p = 0.0095), a measure of brain structure, as well in scores for the WLM (p = 0.0046) and S-PA (p = 0.0007) tests, which measure cognitive function. There were moderate correlations between the change in WLM score and the change in GM-BHQ (r = 0.4448; Spearman’s rank correlation) and between the change in S-PA score and the change in FA-BHQ (r = 0.4645). Daily ingestion of CH changed brain structure and improved language cognitive function. Full article