Farras-Permanyer Laia, Mancho-Fora Núria, Montalà-Flaquer Marc, Bartrés-Faz David, Vaqué-Alcázar Lídia, Peró-Cebollero Maribel, Guàrdia-Olmos Joan
Quantitative Psychology Section, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Quantitative Psychology Section, Faculty of Psychology; Institute of Neuroscience, UB Institute of Complex Systems, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Neural Regen Res. 2019 Sep;14(9):1544-1555. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.255976.
Age-related changes in the brain connectivity of healthy older adults have been widely studied in recent years, with some differences in the obtained results. Most of these studies showed decreases in general functional connectivity, but they also found increases in some particular regions and areas. Frequently, these studies compared young individuals with older subjects, but few studies compared different age groups only in older populations. The purpose of this study is to analyze whole-brain functional connectivity in healthy older adult groups and its network characteristics through functional segregation. A total of 114 individuals, 48 to 89 years old, were scanned using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in a resting state paradigm and were divided into six different age groups (< 60, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, ≥ 80 years old). A partial correlation analysis, a pooled correlation analysis and a study of 3-cycle regions with prominent connectivity were conducted. Our results showed progressive diminution in the functional connectivity among different age groups and this was particularly pronounced between 75 and 79 years old. The oldest group (≥ 80 years old) showed a slight increase in functional connectivity compared to the other groups. This occurred possibly because of compensatory mechanism in brain functioning. This study provides information on the brain functional characteristics of every age group, with more specific information on the functional progressive decline, and supplies methodological tools to study functional connectivity characteristics. Approval for the study was obtained from the ethics committee of the Comisión de Bioética de la Universidad de Barcelona (approval No. PSI2012-38257) on June 5, 2012, and from the ethics committee of the Barcelona's Hospital Clínic (approval No. 2009-5306 and 2011-6604) on October 22, 2009 and April 7, 2011 respectively.
近年来，健康老年人脑连接性的年龄相关变化得到了广泛研究，但所得结果存在一些差异。这些研究大多显示总体功能连接性下降，但也发现某些特定区域有所增加。通常，这些研究将年轻人与老年人进行比较，但很少有研究仅在老年人群体中比较不同年龄组。本研究的目的是通过功能分离分析健康老年人群体的全脑功能连接性及其网络特征。共有114名年龄在48至89岁之间的个体，在静息状态范式下使用静息态功能磁共振成像进行扫描，并分为六个不同年龄组（<60岁、60 - 64岁、65 - 69岁、70 - 74岁、75 - 79岁、≥80岁）。进行了偏相关分析、合并相关分析以及对具有显著连接性的3周期区域的研究。我们的结果显示不同年龄组之间的功能连接性逐渐降低，这在75至79岁之间尤为明显。最年长组（≥80岁）与其他组相比，功能连接性略有增加。这可能是由于大脑功能的代偿机制所致。本研究提供了每个年龄组的脑功能特征信息，特别是关于功能逐渐衰退的更具体信息，并提供了研究功能连接性特征的方法工具。该研究于2012年6月5日获得巴塞罗那大学伦理委员会（批准号PSI2012 - 38257）的批准，并分别于2009年10月22日和2011年4月7日获得巴塞罗那临床医院伦理委员会（批准号2009 - 5306和2011 - 6604）的批准。
