Otsuka Yuki, Osaka Naoyuki, Morishita Masanao, Kondo Hirohito, Osaka Mariko
Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Neuroreport. 2006 Oct 2;17(14):1479-82. doi: 10.1097/01.wnr.0000236852.63092.9f.
We examined aging effects on activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during a verbal working memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Ten young (mean age 25 years) and 10 elderly (mean age 69 years) healthy adults performed the reading span test in which performance reflects individual differences in verbal working memory. We found an age-related difference in executive function in the prefrontal cortex; younger participants showed significant anterior cingulate cortex activation whereas the elderly did not. We found that the anterior cingulate cortex plays a critical role in executive function related to working memory. We found that behavioral deficits in verbal working memory because of aging result from the deterioration of cognitive control owing to decreased activation of the anterior cingulate cortex.
我们使用功能磁共振成像技术，研究了在言语工作记忆过程中衰老对前扣带回皮质激活的影响。10名年轻（平均年龄25岁）和10名年长（平均年龄69岁）的健康成年人进行了阅读广度测试，该测试的表现反映了言语工作记忆中的个体差异。我们发现前额叶皮质的执行功能存在与年龄相关的差异；年轻参与者的前扣带回皮质有显著激活，而年长者则没有。我们发现前扣带回皮质在与工作记忆相关的执行功能中起关键作用。我们发现，衰老导致的言语工作记忆行为缺陷是由于前扣带回皮质激活减少导致认知控制能力下降所致。
