Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital HT, Nesodden, Norway; NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway.
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway.
Neuroimage. 2017 Mar 1;148:364-372. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.01.048. Epub 2017 Jan 20.
Age-related differences in cognitive agility vary greatly between individuals and cognitive functions. This heterogeneity is partly mirrored in individual differences in brain network connectivity as revealed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), suggesting potential imaging biomarkers for age-related cognitive decline. However, although convenient in its simplicity, the resting state is essentially an unconstrained paradigm with minimal experimental control. Here, based on the conception that the magnitude and characteristics of age-related differences in brain connectivity is dependent on cognitive context and effort, we tested the hypothesis that experimentally increasing cognitive load boosts the sensitivity to age and changes the discriminative network configurations. To this end, we obtained fMRI data from younger (n=25, mean age 24.16±5.11) and older (n=22, mean age 65.09±7.53) healthy adults during rest and two load levels of continuous multiple object tracking (MOT). Brain network nodes and their time-series were estimated using independent component analysis (ICA) and dual regression, and the edges in the brain networks were defined as the regularized partial temporal correlations between each of the node pairs at the individual level. Using machine learning based on a cross-validated regularized linear discriminant analysis (rLDA) we attempted to classify groups and cognitive load from the full set of edge-wise functional connectivity indices. While group classification using resting-state data was highly above chance (approx. 70% accuracy), functional connectivity (FC) obtained during MOT strongly increased classification performance, with 82% accuracy for the young and 95% accuracy for the old group at the highest load level. Further, machine learning revealed stronger differentiation between rest and task in young compared to older individuals, supporting the notion of network dedifferentiation in cognitive aging. Task-modulation in edgewise FC was primarily observed between attention- and sensorimotor networks; with decreased negative correlations between attention- and default mode networks in older adults. These results demonstrate that the magnitude and configuration of age-related differences in brain functional connectivity are partly dependent on cognitive context and load, which emphasizes the importance of assessing brain connectivity differences across a range of cognitive contexts beyond the resting-state.
认知敏捷性随年龄的变化在个体和认知功能之间存在很大差异。这种异质性在使用静息态功能磁共振成像(fMRI)揭示的脑网络连接个体差异中部分得到反映,提示存在与年龄相关认知衰退相关的潜在成像生物标志物。然而,尽管静息态简单方便,但它本质上是一种没有严格控制的范式。在这里,基于这样的概念,即脑连接随年龄变化的幅度和特征取决于认知背景和努力程度,我们检验了这样一个假设,即实验性地增加认知负荷会提高对年龄的敏感性,并改变有区分力的网络配置。为此,我们在静息状态和两种连续的多项追踪(MOT)负荷水平下,从年轻(n=25,平均年龄 24.16±5.11)和老年(n=22,平均年龄 65.09±7.53)健康成年人中获得了 fMRI 数据。使用独立成分分析(ICA)和双回归估计脑网络节点及其时间序列,并在个体水平上定义脑网络中的边为每个节点对之间的正则化部分时间相关。使用基于交叉验证正则线性判别分析(rLDA)的机器学习,我们试图从全边缘功能连接指数中分类组和认知负荷。虽然使用静息态数据进行的分组分类准确率非常高(约 70%),但 MOT 过程中的功能连接(FC)大大提高了分类性能,在最高负荷水平下,年轻组的准确率为 82%,老年组的准确率为 95%。此外,机器学习结果表明,与老年人相比,年轻人在静息状态和任务之间的网络差异更大,这支持了认知老化中网络去分化的概念。边缘 FC 的任务调节主要发生在注意力和感觉运动网络之间;老年组注意力和默认模式网络之间的负相关性降低。这些结果表明,脑功能连接随年龄变化的幅度和配置在一定程度上取决于认知背景和负荷,这强调了在静息状态之外,评估认知背景下脑连接差异的重要性。