Associations between thinner retinal neuronal layers and suboptimal brain structural integrity: Are the eyes a window to the brain?

We investigated the extent to which measures of retinal neuronal thickness capture variability in the structural integrity of the brain in a large population-based cohort followed from birth to midlife. Using data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n=1037; analytic n=828, aged 45 years), we specifically tested for associations between optical coherence tomography-measured retinal neuronal layers and MRI-measured structural brain integrity. We found that Study members who had thinner retinal neuronal layers had thinner average cortex, smaller total cortical surface area, smaller subcortical grey matter volumes, larger volume of white matter hyperintensities as well as older looking brains. This suggests that retinal neuronal thickness reflects differences in midlife structural brain integrity consistent with accelerated cognitive decline and increased risk for later dementia, further supporting the proposition that the retina may be a biomarker of brain aging as early as midlife.