Kliniken Schmieder Allensbach, Allensbach, Germany.
Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2010;28(6):737-47. doi: 10.3233/RNN-2010-0542.
Recent studies have found age-related BOLD signal changes in several areas of the human brain. We investigated whether such changes also occur in brain areas involved in the processing of motor action observation and imagery.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging with an experimental paradigm in which motor acts had to be observed and/or imagined from a first person perspective was performed in twenty-six subjects.
In line with previous work action observation and imagery induced BOLD signal increases in similar areas, predominantly in the premotor and parietal cortex. In contrast to young subjects the elderly displayed a stronger activity in most activated brain areas indicative of compensatory activity for the age-related decline of neural structures. Importantly, activity in the ventrolateral premotor cortex and inferior parietal cortex, seminal areas of the mirror neuron system, did not exhibit activity changes as a function of age.
These findings suggest that activity within the mirror neuron system is not age dependent and provide a neural basis for therapeutical interventions and novel rehabilitation treatments such as video therapy.
最近的研究发现，人类大脑的几个区域存在与年龄相关的 BOLD 信号变化。我们调查了这种变化是否也发生在参与运动动作观察和意象处理的脑区。
使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI），我们进行了一个实验范式，要求 26 名受试者从第一人称视角观察和/或想象运动动作。
与之前的研究一致，动作观察和意象引起了类似区域的 BOLD 信号增加，主要在运动前皮质和顶叶皮质。与年轻受试者相比，老年人在大多数激活的脑区表现出更强的活动，表明为神经结构与年龄相关的衰退进行补偿。重要的是，镜像神经元系统的重要区域，即腹外侧运动前皮质和下顶叶皮质，其活动没有表现出随年龄变化的活动变化。
这些发现表明，镜像神经元系统内的活动不受年龄影响，并为治疗干预和新的康复治疗（如视频治疗）提供了神经基础。
