Against the backdrop of globalized aging, accelerated brain aging has emerged as a critical health threat. While current research emphasizes physiological brain function decline, the concept of “Super Aging” reveals successful aging potential and suggests modifiable buffering mechanisms against aging. Brain aging is genetically influenced but more significantly shaped by environmental factors, prompting the exposome framework-a holistic approach to analyzing external influences. Based on the type of exposure, the exposome can be classified into environmental exposome and social exposome. The exposome comprises environmental and social components, yet existing studies disproportionately focus on environmental factors, overlooking the social exposome’s role. This disparity is particularly noteworthy considering humans interact with their environment is socially patterned, and aging heterogeneity may be linked to social inequalities. Moreover, brain aging’s multidimensional nature necessitates composite metrics capturing diverse dimensions. In summary, the present study aims to utilize UK Biobank data to uncover the association between social exposure spectrum and brain aging in the elderly population, grounded within the theoretical framework of the exposome.
Specifically, our research focuses on three key questions: 1) Developing a social exposure spectrum that transcends traditional epidemiological methods, while exploring how social factors influence brain aging; 2) Incorporating a temporal dimension through longitudinal studies to assess the impact of beneficial or harmful social exposure patterns on various brain aging indicators; 3) Based on the hypothesis of a biological embodiment of the social environment, further explore the underlying micromechanisms linking social exposures to brain aging, to elucidate key biological pathways for preventing and intervening in accelerated brain aging processes.
