Li Qiongge, Dong Chao, Liu Tao, Chen Xiaodan, Perry Alistair, Jiang Jiyang, Cheng Jian, Niu Haijun, Kochan Nicole A, Brodaty Henry, Sachdev Perminder S, Wen Wei
School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Centre for Healthy Brain Aging, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2020 Mar 17;12:71. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.00071. eCollection 2020.
Aging is associated with changes in brain functional patterns as well as cognition. The present research sought to investigate longitudinal changes in whole brain functional connectivity strength (FCS) and cognitive performance scores in very old cognitively unimpaired individuals. We studied 34 cognitively normal elderly individuals at both baseline and 4-year follow-up (baseline age = 78 ± 3.14 years) with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (r-fMRI), structural MRI scans, and neuropsychological assessments conducted. Voxel-based whole brain FCS was calculated and we found that bilateral superior parietal and medial frontal regions showed decreased FCS, while the supplementary motor area (SMA) and insula showed increased FCS with age, along with a decrease in bilateral prefrontal cortical thickness. The changes of FCS in left precuneus were associated with an aging-related decline in global cognition. Taken together, our results suggest changes in FCS with aging with the precuneus as a hub and this may underlie changes in global cognition that accompany aging. These findings help better understand the normal aging mechanism.
衰老与大脑功能模式以及认知的变化有关。本研究旨在调查认知功能未受损的高龄个体全脑功能连接强度（FCS）和认知表现分数的纵向变化。我们对34名认知正常的老年人在基线期和4年随访期（基线年龄 = 78 ± 3.14岁）进行了静息态功能磁共振成像（r-fMRI）、结构MRI扫描以及神经心理学评估。计算了基于体素的全脑FCS，我们发现双侧顶上叶和额内侧区域的FCS降低，而辅助运动区（SMA）和脑岛的FCS随年龄增加，同时双侧前额叶皮质厚度减少。左侧楔前叶FCS的变化与衰老相关的整体认知下降有关。综上所述，我们的结果表明FCS随衰老而变化，楔前叶为枢纽，这可能是衰老伴随的整体认知变化的基础。这些发现有助于更好地理解正常衰老机制。
