Hausman Hanna K, O'Shea Andrew, Kraft Jessica N, Boutzoukas Emanuel M, Evangelista Nicole D, Van Etten Emily J, Bharadwaj Pradyumna K, Smith Samantha G, Porges Eric, Hishaw Georg A, Wu Samuel, DeKosky Steven, Alexander Gene E, Marsiske Michael, Cohen Ronald, Woods Adam J
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, College of Public Health and Health Professions, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Department of Psychology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2020 Jun 12;12:177. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.00177. eCollection 2020.
Aging is associated with disruptions in the resting-state functional architecture of the brain. Previous studies have primarily focused on age-related declines in the default mode network (DMN) and its implications in Alzheimer's disease. However, due to mixed findings, it is unclear if changes in resting-state network functional connectivity are linked to cognitive decline in healthy older adults. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of intra-network coherence for four higher-order cognitive resting-state networks on a sensitive measure of cognitive aging (i.e., NIH Toolbox Fluid Cognition Battery) in 154 healthy older adults with a mean age of 71 and education ranging between 12 years and 21 years (mean = 16). Only coherence within the cingulo-opercular network (CON) was significantly related to Fluid Cognition Composite scores, explaining more variance in scores than age and education. Furthermore, we mapped CON connectivity onto fluid cognitive subdomains that typically decline in advanced age. Greater CON connectivity was associated with better performance on episodic memory, attention, and executive function tasks. Overall, the present study provides evidence to propose CON coherence as a potential novel neural marker for nonpathological cognitive aging.
衰老与大脑静息态功能结构的破坏有关。以往的研究主要集中在默认模式网络（DMN）与年龄相关的衰退及其在阿尔茨海默病中的影响。然而，由于研究结果不一，尚不清楚静息态网络功能连接的变化是否与健康老年人的认知衰退有关。在本研究中，我们评估了154名平均年龄为71岁、受教育年限在12年至21年之间（平均 = 16年）的健康老年人中，四个高阶认知静息态网络的网络内相干性对认知衰老敏感指标（即美国国立卫生研究院工具箱流体认知电池）的影响。只有扣带-脑岛网络（CON）内的相干性与流体认知综合得分显著相关，其对得分的解释方差比年龄和受教育年限更多。此外，我们将CON连接性映射到通常在高龄时下降的流体认知子领域。更高的CON连接性与情景记忆、注意力和执行功能任务的更好表现相关。总体而言，本研究提供了证据，提出CON相干性作为非病理性认知衰老的潜在新型神经标志物。
