Stumme Johanna, Jockwitz Christiane, Hoffstaedter Felix, Amunts Katrin, Caspers Svenja
Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2020 Jul 1;214:116756. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116756. Epub 2020 Mar 19.
Healthy aging has been associated with a decrease in functional network specialization. Importantly, variability of alterations of functional connectivity is especially high across older adults. Whole-brain functional network reorganization, though, and its impact on cognitive performance within particularly the older generation is still a matter of debate. We assessed resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in 772 older adults (55-85 years, 421 males) using a graph-theoretical approach. Results show overall age-related increases of between- and decreases of within-network RSFC. With similar phenomena observed in young to middle-aged adults, i.e. that RSFC reorganizes towards more pronounced functional network integration, the current results amend such evidence for the old age. The results furthermore indicate that RSFC reorganization in older adults particularly pertain to early sensory networks (e.g. visual and sensorimotor network). Importantly, RSFC differences of these early sensory networks were found to be a relevant mediator in terms of the age-related cognitive performance differences. Further, we found systematic sex-related network differences with females showing patterns of more segregation (i.e. default mode and ventral attention network) and males showing a higher integrated network system (particularly for the sensorimotor network). These findings underpin the notion of sex-related connectivity differences, possibly facilitating sex-related behavioral functioning.
健康老龄化与功能网络专业化程度的降低有关。重要的是，功能连接改变的变异性在老年人中尤其高。然而，全脑功能网络重组及其对特别是老年群体认知表现的影响仍是一个有争议的问题。我们采用图论方法评估了772名老年人（55 - 85岁，421名男性）的静息态功能连接（RSFC）。结果显示，网络间RSFC总体上随年龄增长而增加，网络内RSFC则随年龄增长而减少。在年轻至中年成年人中也观察到类似现象，即RSFC向更明显的功能网络整合方向重组，当前结果为老年群体补充了此类证据。此外，结果表明老年人的RSFC重组尤其涉及早期感觉网络（如视觉和感觉运动网络）。重要的是，这些早期感觉网络的RSFC差异被发现是与年龄相关的认知表现差异的一个相关中介因素。此外，我们发现了与性别相关的系统性网络差异，女性表现出更多隔离模式（即默认模式和腹侧注意网络），而男性表现出更高的整合网络系统（特别是感觉运动网络）。这些发现支持了与性别相关的连接差异这一概念，可能促进与性别相关的行为功能。
