This study examines whether white matter integrity mediates the link between psychological stress and skin aging. This cross-sectional study included 92 healthy Japanese adults (aged 22–62 years) who underwent diffusion tensor imaging to obtain Fractional Anisotropy Brain Healthcare Quotients (FA-BHQs) for major white matter tracts, while skin aging was assessed using Motion Scan Technology. Correlation analyses revealed significant associations among stress, skin aging, and FA-BHQ in the corpus callosum (CC) and internal capsule (IC). Mediation analyses suggested, at the statistical level, a potential that the CC fully mediates the association between stress and skin aging. These findings suggest a relationship between interhemispheric white matter integrity, psychological stress, and skin aging in line with the concept of the brain–skin axis.
Yuan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.