Figure 3. Mediation analysis results.

Mediation effects of subject-specific imaging PLS scores on the relationship between MetS represented by the clinical PLS score and cognitive test performances. Path plots display standardized effects and p-values: (a) clinical score to imaging score, (b) imaging score to cognitive score, (ab) indirect effect (c’) direct effect and (c) total effect. Significant paths are highlighted in blue; non-significant in light gray. If the indirect effect ab was significant, the text for ab is highlighted in blue. A blue dot in the path plot indicates if a relationship is significantly mediated, i.e., the indirect effect ab was significant and the direct effect c’ was reduced or non-significant compared to the total effect c. An empty dot indicates a partial mediation, a full dot indicates a full mediation. Abbreviations: - false discovery rate-corrected p-values; PLS – partial least squares correlation; TMT-A – Trail Making Test A; TMT-B – Trail Making Test B.