Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
Neurobiol Aging. 2013 Oct;34(10):2277-86. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.03.031. Epub 2013 Apr 28.
The present study aimed to reveal the effects of age on the temporal profile of the positive blood-oxygen-level-dependent response (PBR) during low-velocity optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in healthy subjects. We were specifically interested in comparing these effects with the effects of age on the PBR elicited by pure visual and motor tasks. Therefore, we conducted 2 additional control experiments: a checkerboard experiment (visual stimulation) and a finger-tapping (motor task) experiment. Whereas the oculomotor performance of the subjects remained unaltered, the temporal profile of the PBR changed significantly with increasing age in visual and oculomotor areas. None of the control experiments revealed significant age-related PBR changes. Thus, this study demonstrates that the PBR changes during OKN occur before any changes in the oculomotor performance can be detected. These effects of age are specific for the OKN task and probably reflect both changes in the neurovascular coupling and changes in the neural processing during OKN.
本研究旨在揭示年龄对健康受试者在低速度视动性眼球震颤（OKN）过程中血氧水平依赖正性反应（PBR）时程的影响。我们特别感兴趣的是将这些影响与年龄对由纯视觉和运动任务引起的 PBR 的影响进行比较。因此，我们进行了另外两项控制实验：棋盘实验（视觉刺激）和手指敲击（运动任务）实验。尽管受试者的眼动表现保持不变，但 PBR 的时程在视觉和眼动区域随年龄的增长而显著变化。在任何可检测到的眼动表现变化之前，OKN 过程中 PBR 的变化已经发生。这些年龄相关的影响是 OKN 任务特有的，可能反映了神经血管耦合和 OKN 过程中神经处理的变化。
