Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
Neurosci Lett. 2013 Jun 7;544:74-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2013.03.044. Epub 2013 Apr 9.
The right fronto-insular cortex (rFIC) is a core node of the salience network (SN) and plays a critical role in switching between the central executive network (CEN) and the default-mode network (DMN), an important function in cognitive processing. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the functional connectivity (FC) between the rFIC and the CEN and DMN may decrease with age in adults from youth to middle age given that the intra- and inter-network FCs of the three networks decline in aged people. We performed voxel-wise FC analysis based on resting state functional MRI data (171 subjects; 17-62 years of age) to investigate whether the FCs of the rFIC are associated with age in normal adults. We found age-related decreases in the positive FCs between the rFIC and the CEN and in the negative FCs between the rFIC and the DMN with and without atrophy correction. These findings suggest that the connection of the rFIC with the CEN and DMN is degraded even in middle-aged adults, which may influence the role of the rFIC in effectively switching between the CEN and DMN and may further affect cognitive function in these subjects.
右侧额岛皮质（rFIC）是突显网络（SN）的核心节点，在中央执行网络（CEN）和默认模式网络（DMN）之间的切换中起着关键作用，这是认知处理中的一个重要功能。在本研究中，我们假设 rFIC 与 CEN 和 DMN 之间的功能连接（FC）可能会随着年龄的增长而降低，因为在老年人中，三个网络的内联网和外联网 FC 都会下降。我们基于静息状态功能磁共振成像数据（171 名受试者；17-62 岁）进行了体素水平的 FC 分析，以研究 rFIC 的 FC 是否与正常成年人的年龄相关。我们发现，rFIC 与 CEN 之间的正 FC 以及 rFIC 与 DMN 之间的负 FC 与年龄相关，无论是否存在萎缩校正。这些发现表明，即使在中年成年人中，rFIC 与 CEN 和 DMN 的连接也会退化，这可能会影响 rFIC 在有效切换 CEN 和 DMN 之间的作用，并可能进一步影响这些受试者的认知功能。
