# Air pollution and noise exposures in relation to dementia: from brain imaging markers to clinical disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 2020 · $789,669

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Burgeoning evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution may result in impaired cognitive function, cognitive
decline, and increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Newer, sparser evidence
hints that these outcomes could also be influenced by ambient noise. If these environmental exposures do
worsen cognition in older adults, they would be among the few pervasive risk factors for cognitive loss that can
be modified on broad scale to benefit entire populations. Despite major implications for public health, there are
critical limitations in our knowledge of how air pollution and noise affect neurocognitive aging. Most studies of
these exposures in relation to ADRD have relied on medical or health administrative records, which provide
strikingly unreliable data on dementia status. Both exposures increase cardiovascular risk. If health care use
for these conditions makes it more likely that a person with dementia is diagnosed, then using medical records
to estimate of the relation of air pollution and noise to ADRD risk could overestimate these associations. A
second limitation is that the mechanisms by which these exposures promote cognitive deterioration are
unclear, although cerebrovascular pathways have been proposed. Finally, air pollution and ambient noise often
co-occur, yet few studies have been able to determine if these exposures amplify each other's effects. To
overcome these limitations and knowledge gaps, we propose to investigate the effects of air pollution and
noise exposure on cognitive decline and ADRD and, using brain MRI measurements, to evaluate these
exposures' influence on cerebrovascular injury and neuronal death. We take advantage of 2 large, racially
diverse population-based cohort studies of older adults, the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) and the
Parent Offspring Resilience and Cognitive Health (PORCH) study. We will integrate data from cohort
participants on cognitive decline, ADRD, and brain MRI with estimates of their long-term exposures to noise
and air pollution from traffic, generated in ongoing collaboration with the MESA Air and ancillary projects. We
will focus on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP), because traffic remains one of the most pervasive sources of
air pollution exposure. This work extends our ongoing research by: investigating brain MRI measures of
cerebrovascular injury; evaluating other constituents of TRAP, including the metals released from brake and
tire wear; and evaluating the effects of TRAP and noise in combination. Our overarching hypothesis is that
TRAP and noise exposures hasten cognitive decline, increase ADRD risk, and promote cerebrovascular
ischemia and brain atrophy. We further hypothesize that TRAP and noise exposure together influence these
outcomes, above and beyond what would be expected from their individual associations with these outcomes.
Reductions in environmental pollutants have already benefited the population's healt...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9864901
- **Project number:** 1R01AG065359-01
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **Principal Investigator:** Jennifer Weuve
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $789,669
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-02-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9864901

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9864901, Air pollution and noise exposures in relation to dementia: from brain imaging markers to clinical disease (1R01AG065359-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9864901. Licensed CC0.

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