Blood Type Linked to Cognitive Status

With aging, the amount of grey matter present in the brain declines – the extent of this reduction appears to correlate to blood type. Matteo De Marcoa, from the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), and colleagues utilized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 189 healthy men and women, and calculated the volume of grey matter in the brain as a function of blood type. Data analysis revealed that the individuals with an ‘O’ blood type had more grey matter in the posterior proportion of the cerebellum. Those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types had smaller grey matter volumes in temporal and limbic regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus – the earliest part of the brain damaged by Alzheimer’s disease . The study authors submit that: “These findings identify the cerebellar tissue as a candidate for further studying ABO function, and support a general association between ABO blood type and variance in the development of the nervous system.”