Department of Physiology, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8 Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 142-8555, Japan.
Department of Ophthalmology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
BMC Neurosci. 2021 Dec 7;22(1):75. doi: 10.1186/s12868-021-00680-x.
Cognitive function declines with age and has been shown to be associated with atrophy in some brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex. However, the details of the relationship between aging and cognitive dysfunction are not well understood.
Across a wide range of ages (24- to 85-years-old), this research measured the gray matter volume of structural magnetic resonance imaging data in 39 participants, while some brain regions were set as mediator variables to assess the cascade process between aging and cognitive dysfunction in a path analysis.
Path analysis showed that age affected the left hippocampus, thereby directly affecting the left superior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, the gyrus directly affected higher order flexibility and maintenance abilities calculated as in the Wisconsin card sorting test, and the two abilities affected the assessment of general cognitive function.
Our finding suggests that a cascade process mediated by the left hippocampus and left superior frontal gyrus is involved in the relationship between aging and cognitive dysfunction.
认知功能随年龄增长而下降，已有研究表明其与大脑某些区域（包括前额叶皮质）的萎缩有关。然而，衰老与认知功能障碍之间的关系细节尚不清楚。
本研究在广泛的年龄范围内（24 岁至 85 岁），对 39 名参与者的结构磁共振成像数据的灰质体积进行了测量，同时将一些脑区作为中介变量，以在路径分析中评估衰老和认知功能障碍之间的级联过程。
路径分析表明，年龄影响左侧海马体，从而直接影响左侧额上回。此外，额上回直接影响威斯康星卡片分类测试中计算得出的高级灵活性和维持能力，这两种能力影响一般认知功能的评估。
我们的发现表明，左侧海马体和左侧额上回介导的级联过程参与了衰老与认知功能障碍之间的关系。
