Brea Louise Perry
Indiana University, IN·Social Science
People with strong social ties tend to live longer. Meta-analyses suggest the benefit of social connectedness on mortality is larger than the harm from smoking or obesity.
- Fields
Social Science
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
social networks
social connectedness
social isolation
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2030
What they work on
- Test whether people's habitual patterns of contact with their personal networks ("social signatures") are associated with DNA methylation-based epigenetic age acceleration and polyepigenetic scores in about 2,600 P2P Health Interview Study participants.
- Assess whether social signatures weaken the links between early-life, mid-life and chronic stress exposures and DNA methylation profiles of faster biological aging.
- Examine associations between social signatures and specific DNA methylation sites tied to obesity, inflammation, Alzheimer's disease and other age-related diseases.
- Follow the SNAD cohort over the long term to relate changes in personal social networks to neurodegeneration and conversion to mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
- Expand SNAD into high-risk communities and test whether stress exposures and DNA methylation-based biological aging connect social network traits to cognitive decline.
More about the research
Much less is known about what happens inside the body to produce this effect. Both projects ask how a person's personal social network gets "under the skin" to shape biological aging, dementia and other diseases of later life. They pair detailed survey data on social networks with biological measures such as DNA methylation, chemical tags on DNA that change with age and stress.
Why it matters
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias place a heavy burden on patients, families and the health care system. Diabetes, heart disease and stroke also rise with age. By showing whether social ties slow biological aging or protect against cognitive decline, this work could point to new social or biological targets for earlier intervention. Such interventions might help older adults keep their thinking skills and independence longer.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lisa Barcellos
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Develop comprehensive wildfire smoke exposure assignments for all members of a multi-ethnic cohort of about 5,000 East Bay adults sampled during the 2020–2021 wildfire seasons.
Adam Roth
Oklahoma State University, OK·Social Science
Characterize the daily social interactions and activities of older adults in rural and urban areas, using surveys and ecological momentary assessments, which are brief repeated check-ins during everyday life.
Paula Ramos
Emory University, GA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify DNA methylation changes in people with lupus and matched controls that are linked to adverse and protective social support, measured with validated surveys.
The school
Indiana University: 21 labs on PI Pages, $897M a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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