Zhao Jizheng, Manza Peter, Wiers Corinde, Song Huaibo, Zhuang Puning, Gu Jun, Shi Yinggang, Wang Gene-Jack, He Dongjian
College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.
Key Laboratory of Agricultural Internet of Things, Ministry of Agriculture, Yangling, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2020 Feb 26;12:20. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.00020. eCollection 2020.
Age-related alterations of functional brain networks contribute to cognitive decline. Current theories indicate that age-related intrinsic brain functional reorganization may be a critical marker of cognitive aging. Yet, little is known about how intrinsic interhemispheric functional connectivity changes with age in adults, and how this relates to critical executive functions. To address this, we examined voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC), a metric that quantifies interhemispheric communication, in 93 healthy volunteers (age range: 19-85) with executive function assessment using the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) scales. Resting functional MRI data were analyzed to assess VMHC, and then a multiple linear regression model was employed to evaluate the relationship between age and the whole-brain VMHC. We observed age-related reductions in VMHC of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe subsystem, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula in salience network, and inferior parietal lobule in frontoparietal control network. Performance on the color-word inhibition task was associated with VMHC of vmPFC and insula, and VMHC of vmPFC mediated the relationship between age and CWIT inhibition reaction times. The percent ratio of correct design scores in design fluency test correlated positively with VMHC of the inferior parietal lobule. The current study suggests that brain interhemispheric functional alterations may be a promising new avenue for understanding age-related cognitive decline.
与年龄相关的大脑功能网络改变会导致认知能力下降。当前理论表明，与年龄相关的大脑内在功能重组可能是认知衰老的关键标志。然而，对于成年人内在半球间功能连接如何随年龄变化，以及这与关键执行功能有何关系，我们却知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，我们对93名健康志愿者（年龄范围：19 - 85岁）进行了体素镜像同伦连接性（VMHC）检测，这是一种量化半球间交流的指标，并使用德利斯 - 卡普兰执行功能系统（D - KEFS）量表对他们进行执行功能评估。分析静息态功能磁共振成像数据以评估VMHC，然后采用多元线性回归模型来评估年龄与全脑VMHC之间的关系。我们观察到，在内侧颞叶子系统的腹内侧前额叶皮质（vmPFC）和海马体、突显网络的背侧前扣带回皮质和脑岛以及额顶叶控制网络的下顶叶小叶中，VMHC存在与年龄相关的降低。颜色 - 单词抑制任务的表现与vmPFC和脑岛的VMHC相关，并且vmPFC的VMHC介导了年龄与颜色 - 单词抑制任务（CWIT）反应时间之间的关系。设计流畅性测试中正确设计分数的百分比与下顶叶小叶的VMHC呈正相关。当前研究表明，大脑半球间功能改变可能是理解与年龄相关的认知下降的一个有前景的新途径。
