Brain ageing, cognition, and socioeconomic status

I co-led the development of AGEWELL, a cohort study wherein 400 Malaysian adults aged 60 years and above underwent extensive cognitive, neuroimaging, and salivary testing.

My team and I collected data on-site from community-dwelling senior citizens stemming from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, thereby making this cohort a first-of-its-kind in the region.

Our seminal paper characterised cognitive profiles within this unique older population and found that:

  1. Cognitive rigidity was associated with widespread grey matter volume loss in key executive function brain regions.
  2. Slowness in decision-making was associated with advanced brain ageing (i.e., higher brain age compared to chronological age).
  3. Above other factors, older people who experienced more socioeconomic disadvantage across their life (i.e., in income, in education, in housing, and in career opportunities) showed worse cognitive abilities in older age.

This research serves as a powerful reminder of the hidden ways socioeconomic disparities shape our brain health over a lifetime. Thus, addressing social inequality is not just an economic or moral imperative, it’s a crucial public health strategy.

Relevant publications:

Marzuki, A. A., Wong, K. Y., Chan, J. K., Na, S. Y., Thanaraju, A., Phon-Amnuaisuk, P., … & Schaefer, A. (2024). Mapping computational cognitive profiles of aging to dissociable brain and sociodemographic factors. npj Aging, 10(1), 50. Link

Thanaraju, A., Marzuki, A. A., Chan, J. K., Wong, K. Y., Phon-Amnuaisuk, P., Vafa, S., … & Jenkins, M. (2024). Structural and functional brain correlates of socioeconomic status across the life span: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 162, 105716. Link

Vafa, S., Thanaraju, A., Chan, J. K., Harris, H. A., Chan, X. W., Todi, K., … & Marzuki, A. A. (2025). The effectiveness of real‐life cognitive and physical interventions on cognitive functioning in healthy older adults: A systematic review of the effects of education and training duration. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being, 17(1), e12651. Link

Chan, J. K., Marzuki, A. A., Vafa, S., Thanaraju, A., Yap, J., Chan, X. W., … & Schaefer, A. (2024). A systematic review on the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and emotional disorder symptoms during Covid-19: unearthing the potential role of economic concerns and financial strain. BMC psychology, 12(1), 237. Link