Editorial: Exploring Brain Aging from Midlife to Alzheimer's Disease-Effects of Lifestyle Interventions and Memory Mechanisms

Junyeon Won ^1,2* Marissa A Gogniat ³ Takuya Kurazumi ⁴ Kristy A Nielson ^5,6*

• ¹ Department of Neurology, Medical School, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
• ² Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, United States
• ³ Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
• ⁴ Department of Social Medicine, Division of Hygiene, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
• ⁵ Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, United States
• ⁶ Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

With the rapid increase in the aging population, the prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) has risen significantly, affecting over 55 million people worldwide in 2023, with projections suggesting this number will exceed 78 million by 2030 (Better, 2023). While much research has been focused on understanding and treating AD in older adults, there is growing emphasis on early interventions to prevent its onset (Crous-Bou et al., 2017;Dohm-Hansen et al., 2024). In this regard, middle-age has gained recognition as a critical period for the development and prevention of AD (Ritchie et al., 2017). For example, midlife vascular risk factors including diabetes, obesity, and hypertension increased the risk of developing AD in late life (Livingston et al., 2020). This research topic includes eight human and rodent studies, including three review papers, exploring strategies to reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline and mechanisms of age-related memory decline in middle-aged individuals, older adults with normal cognition, those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and those with AD.Exercise InterventionIn their review such as personality traits and molecular signaling as well as vascular health playing critical roles in 107 cognitive decline and adaptation (Gogniat et al., 2020;Won, Gogniat, et al., 2025;Won, Tomoto, et 108 al., 2025). Moving forward, future research should focus on elucidating the underlying mechanisms 109 that link midlife risk factors to late-life cognitive outcomes 110 J.W. drafted the paper and J.W., M.G., T.K., and K.N. edited the paper. All authors reviewed, revised, 115 and approved the final manuscript. 116Funding 117This study was supported by the American Heart Association (25POST1366119). 118