People with O type blood have more gray matter in their brain and may be more protected against conditions that cause cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer’s, than people with A, B, or AB blood types.
For a new study, researchers analyzed 189 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans from healthy volunteers and calculated the volumes of gray matter within the brain and the differences among blood types.
The findings, published in the Brain Research Bulletin, show that individuals with O blood have more gray matter in the posterior portion of the cerebellum.
People with A, B, or AB blood have smaller gray matter volumes in temporal and limbic regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus, which is one of the earliest parts of the brain damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.
