School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; Institute of Electronic and Information Engineering of Guangdong, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Dongguan 523000, China; School of Radiology, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Tai'an 271016, China.
School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; School of Radiology, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Tai'an 271016, China.
Neuroscience. 2024 Nov 1;559:263-271. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.09.004. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
Normal aging is accompanied by changes in brain structure and function associated with cognitive decline. Structural and functional abnormalities, particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and subcortical regions, contributed to cognitive aging. However, it remains unclear how the synchronized changes in structure and function of individual brain regions affect the cognition in aging. Using 3D T1-weighted structural data and movie watching functional magnetic resonance imaging data in a sample of 422 healthy individuals (ages from 18 to 87 years), we constructed regional structure-function coupling (SFC) of cortical and subcortical regions by quantifying the distribution similarity of gray matter volume (GMV) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). Further, we investigated age-related changes in SFC and its relationship with cognition. With aging, increased SFC localized in PFC, thalamus and caudate nucleus, decreased SFC in temporal cortex, lateral occipital cortex and putamen. Moreover, the SFC in the PFC was associated with executive function and thalamus was associated with the fluid intelligence, and partially mediated age-related cognitive decline. Collectively, our results highlight that tighter structure-function synchron of the PFC and thalamus might contribute to age-related cognitive decline, and provide insight into the substrate of the thalamo-prefrontal pathway with cognitive aging.
正常衰老伴随着与认知能力下降相关的大脑结构和功能的变化。结构和功能异常，特别是前额叶皮层（PFC）和皮质下区域，导致认知衰老。然而，个体脑区结构和功能的同步变化如何影响衰老过程中的认知，目前仍不清楚。我们使用了 3D T1 加权结构数据和电影观看功能磁共振成像数据，对 422 名健康个体（年龄在 18 岁至 87 岁之间）进行了分析，通过量化灰质体积（GMV）和低频波动幅度（ALFF）的分布相似性，构建了皮质和皮质下区域的区域结构-功能耦合（SFC）。进一步，我们研究了 SFC 的年龄相关性变化及其与认知的关系。随着年龄的增长，PFC、丘脑和尾状核的 SFC 增加，颞叶皮质、外侧枕叶皮质和壳核的 SFC 减少。此外，PFC 的 SFC与执行功能有关，丘脑与流体智力有关，并且部分介导了与年龄相关的认知能力下降。总之，我们的研究结果强调了 PFC 和丘脑的结构-功能同步性增强可能导致与年龄相关的认知能力下降，并为认知衰老的丘脑-前额叶通路的基础提供了新的见解。
