Hicks Tracey H, Magalhães Thamires N C, Jackson T Bryan, Ballard Hannah K, Herrejon Ivan A, Bernard Jessica A
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.
Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2024 Dec 18;230(1):10. doi: 10.1007/s00429-024-02862-9.
Healthy aging is associated with deficits in cognitive performance and brain changes, including in the cerebellum. Cerebellar communication with the cortex via closed-loop circuits through the thalamus have been established and these circuits are closely related to the functional topography of the cerebellum. In this study, we sought to elucidate relationships between cerebellar structure and function with cognition in healthy aging. We explored this relationship in 138 healthy adults (aged 35-86, 53% female) using resting-state functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI), cerebellar volume, and cognitive and motor assessments. Behavioral tasks assessed attention, processing speed, working memory, episodic memory, and motor abilities. We expected to find negative relationships between lobular volume with age, and positive relationships between specific lobular volumes with motor and cognitive behavior, respectively. We predicted lower cerebello-cortical fcMRI with increased age. Behaviorally, we expected higher cerebello-frontal and cerebello-association area fcMRI cerebellar connectivity to correlate with better behavioral performance. Correlations were conducted between cerebellar lobules I-IV, V, Crus I, Crus II, vermis VI and behavioral measures. We found lower volumes with increased age as well as both higher and lower cerebellar connectivity relationships with increased age, consistent with literature on functional connectivity and network segregation in aging. Further, we revealed unique associations between cerebellar structure and connectivity with comprehensive behavioral measures in a healthy aging population. Our findings further highlight the role of the cerebellum in aging.
健康衰老与认知能力下降和大脑变化有关，包括小脑的变化。小脑通过丘脑的闭环回路与皮层进行通信，这些回路与小脑的功能拓扑密切相关。在本研究中，我们试图阐明健康衰老过程中小脑结构和功能与认知之间的关系。我们使用静息态功能连接MRI（fcMRI）、小脑体积以及认知和运动评估，对138名健康成年人（年龄35 - 86岁，53%为女性）进行了此项关系的探究。行为任务评估了注意力、处理速度、工作记忆、情景记忆和运动能力。我们预期发现小叶体积与年龄呈负相关，特定小叶体积与运动和认知行为分别呈正相关。我们预测随着年龄增长，小脑 - 皮层fcMRI会降低。在行为方面，我们预期较高的小脑 - 额叶和小脑 - 联合区域fcMRI小脑连接性与更好的行为表现相关。对小脑小叶I - IV、V、 Crus I、 Crus II、蚓部VI与行为指标之间进行了相关性分析。我们发现随着年龄增长体积减小，以及随着年龄增长小脑连接性呈现出高低不同的关系，这与衰老过程中功能连接和网络分离的文献一致。此外，我们揭示了在健康衰老人群中，小脑结构和连接性与综合行为指标之间的独特关联。我们的研究结果进一步凸显了小脑在衰老过程中的作用。
