Spatial associations of mood disorders and cognitive performance with neighborhood environmental attributes and brain plasticity

Objectives : This study aimed to examine associations between mood disorders and cognitive impairments with environmental neighborhood attributes and evaluate their effects on brain plasticity. Setting: Lausanne and Outskirts. Methods: Multiscale and simple geographically weighted analysis (GWR and MGWR) Participants: Subjects of the CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study from baseline (2003) to the second follow-­‐up (2017). Results: Hypothesis were mostly verified for the links between vegetation, traffic noise, solar radiation and walking time towards public transports and mood disorders as well as cognitive performances. Some discrepancies and contradictory associations were also observed proving the need to perform similar analysis with more data. Then, the MGWR method proved valuable as a complimentary tool to the more established GWR method. Finally, brain volumes proved to be spatially linked to medical variables and their associated environmental neighborhood attributes. Nevertheless, it was difficult to establish clear links and find causality when assessing these relationships.