Reduced specificity of functional connectivity in the aging brain during task performance

The importance of studying connectivity in the aging brain is increasingly recognized. Recent studies have shown that connectivity within the default mode network is reduced with age and have demonstrated a clear relation of these changes with cognitive functioning. However, research on age‐related...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human brain mapping 2014-01, Vol.35 (1), p.319-330
Main Authors: Geerligs, Linda, Maurits, Natasha M., Renken, Remco J., Lorist, Monicque M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
aging
Aging - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiopathology
Brain Mapping
dedifferentiation
Electrodiagnosis. Electric activity recording
Female
fMRI
functional connectivity
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Nervous system
neural noise
Neural Pathways - physiopathology
Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry
Young Adult
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The importance of studying connectivity in the aging brain is increasingly recognized. Recent studies have shown that connectivity within the default mode network is reduced with age and have demonstrated a clear relation of these changes with cognitive functioning. However, research on age‐related changes in other functional networks is sparse and mainly focused on prespecified functional networks. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated age‐related changes in functional connectivity during a visual oddball task in a range of functional networks. It was found that compared with young participants, elderly showed a decrease in connectivity between areas belonging to the same functional network. This was found in the default mode network and the somatomotor network. Moreover, in all identified networks, elderly showed increased connectivity between areas within these networks and areas belonging to different functional networks. Decreased connectivity within functional networks was related to poorer cognitive functioning in elderly. The results were interpreted as a decrease in the specificity of functional networks in older participants. Hum Brain Mapp 35:319–330, 2014. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
ISSN:1065-9471
1097-0193
DOI:10.1002/hbm.22175