A FUEL FOR RESILIENCE? ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN KETONE BODY LEVELS, BRAIN NETWORK STABILITY AND STRESS RESILIENCE

Stress-related mental disorders have been linked to metabolic dysfunctions such as insulin resistance and hyperglycaemia. Epidemiological data suggest that high-glycaemic diets contribute to the development of depression and anxiety. Diabetes is associated with an increased risk for these disorders and accelerates cognitive decline through cerebral glucose hypometabolism. Ketone bodies, particularly β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), represent an alternative energy source for the brain and have been suggested to enhance brain network stability, a putative biomarker of resilience, compared to glucose. Within the KetoResi-KeNeReHum project, this study investigates whether metabolic state, indexed by BHB levels, is associated with neural and psychological resilience markers in young healthy adults.
We analyzed data from a well-characterized cohort of the Mainz Resilience Project. BHB concentrations were quantified from stored blood samples, and cognitive performance and longitudinal resilience were assessed using established behavioural and questionnaire-based measures. Resting-state fMRI data are currently undergoing preprocessing to derive brain network stability indices, which will be examined in relation to longitudinal resilience, plasma BHB levels and cognition.
Preliminary analyses revealed no association between BHB levels and longitudinal resilience indices. In contrast, a regression analysis showed that cognitive control, indexed by stop-signal reaction time, significantly predicted longitudinal resilience (R² = 0.076, F = 10.84, p = 0.001; β = 0.276, 95% CI [0.110, 0.443]).
These findings support the role of cognitive control abilities as a key factor in resilience and provide a framework for integrating metabolic, neural and cognitive markers to better understand mechanisms of stress adaptation.