Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Advanced aging is associated with reduced attentional control and less flexible information processing. Here, the origins of these cognitive effects were explored using a functional magnetic resonance imaging task that systematically varied demands to shift attention and inhibit irrelevant information across task blocks. Prefrontal and parietal regions previously implicated in attentional control were recruited by the task and most so for the most demanding task configurations. A subset of older individuals did not modulate activity in frontal and parietal regions in response to changing task requirements. Older adults who did not dynamically modulate activity underperformed their peers and scored more poorly on neuropsychological measures of executive function and speed of processing. Examining 2 markers of preclinical pathology in older adults revealed that white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), but not high amyloid burden, were associated with failure to modulate activity in response to changing task demands. In contrast, high amyloid burden was associated with alterations in default network activity. These results suggest failure to modulate frontal and parietal activity reflects a disruptive process in advanced aging associated with specific neuropathologic processes.
Source: Cerebral Cortex
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $5,038
Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Alzheimer's Association, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, University of Pittsburgh, Centre d'Imagerie BioMédicale, National Institutes of Health, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, National Institute on Aging, National Center for Research Resources
Awards: G1047631285, G1082078860, G1689143091, G2080581370, Functional-anatomic exploration of cognitive control, G2194068223, G2227408383, G2310474037, G2932629777, G3070351724, G393103480, Mentoring Imaging Research in Early AD, G4663119878, HRCA/Harvard Research Nursing Home, Center for Functional Imaging Technologies, G5951230003, Computeserver Structural &Functional Image Analysis, Evolution of memory related fMRI activation over the course of MCI and AD, Characterizing the Evolution of Amyloid Deposition in Normal Elderly, G668207740, Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, G824017836, G8711093347, A Storage Area Network for Structural and Functional Image Analysis, Neural Processes Underlying Cognitive Aging, G9000121663, G9000334189, Impact of Amyloid and Tau on the Aging Brain: The Harvard Aging Brain Study, Silicon Graphics Prism Extreme 128P/1TB
OpenAlex ID: W2171702345