TY - JOUR
T1 - Age-related differences in resting-state and task-based network characteristics and cognition
T2 - a lifespan sample
AU - Zhang, Haoyun
AU - Gertel, Victoria H.
AU - Cosgrove, Abigail L.
AU - Diaz, Michele T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This publication was supported by funding from the National Institute on Aging NIH NIA R01 AG034138 (mtd). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The authors have no conflicts of interest. We thank the members in the Language and Aging Laboratory at Penn State for their help with data collection, in particular Hossein Karimi and Sara Troutman. We also thank the staff and scientists at the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center and the Center for Language Science, where the experiment was conducted. Data, analysis scripts, and supplementary materials are available online at: https://osf.io/f36pj/?view_only=35ff0ba75c70458da1901f52558beff3.
Funding Information:
This publication was supported by funding from the National Institute on Aging NIH NIA R01 AG034138 (mtd). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The authors have no conflicts of interest. We thank the members in the Language and Aging Laboratory at Penn State for their help with data collection, in particular Hossein Karimi and Sara Troutman. We also thank the staff and scientists at the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center and the Center for Language Science, where the experiment was conducted. Data, analysis scripts, and supplementary materials are available online at: https://osf.io/f36pj/?view_only=35ff0ba75c70458da1901f52558beff3 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Aging is often associated with cognitive and neural decline, but how these factors interact is still not fully understood. Recently, functional connectivity, or the degree to which brain regions are concurrently active, has provided insight into age-related differences. However, functional connectivities during task and rest differ and few studies have examined how these relate to a broad range of cognitive functions. The present study investigated the effect of age on cognition, whole-brain functional connectivity during resting-state and task, and their relationships across the adult lifespan. Cognition was broadly assessed using a battery of cognitive assessments and mean network characteristics were calculated across the whole brain. Behaviorally, increased age was associated with worse recall, executive function, and verbal working memory abilities but better language performance. Neurally, increased age was associated with lower overall within- and between-network functional connectivities during both rest and task, and these age-connectivity relationships were stronger during task performance. Connectivity was also related to cognition, and for all participants, these relationships were strongest during rest. Specifically, higher resting-state between-network functional connectivity was associated with poorer cognition for all adults and poorer language ability among older adults. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that while age effects were strongest during the task, resting-state functional connectivity was most closely tied to cognition. Moreover, these results are theoretically consistent with dedifferentiation accounts of cognition and aging and show that less differentiated functional connectivities are associated with cognitive costs for both older and younger adults.
AB - Aging is often associated with cognitive and neural decline, but how these factors interact is still not fully understood. Recently, functional connectivity, or the degree to which brain regions are concurrently active, has provided insight into age-related differences. However, functional connectivities during task and rest differ and few studies have examined how these relate to a broad range of cognitive functions. The present study investigated the effect of age on cognition, whole-brain functional connectivity during resting-state and task, and their relationships across the adult lifespan. Cognition was broadly assessed using a battery of cognitive assessments and mean network characteristics were calculated across the whole brain. Behaviorally, increased age was associated with worse recall, executive function, and verbal working memory abilities but better language performance. Neurally, increased age was associated with lower overall within- and between-network functional connectivities during both rest and task, and these age-connectivity relationships were stronger during task performance. Connectivity was also related to cognition, and for all participants, these relationships were strongest during rest. Specifically, higher resting-state between-network functional connectivity was associated with poorer cognition for all adults and poorer language ability among older adults. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that while age effects were strongest during the task, resting-state functional connectivity was most closely tied to cognition. Moreover, these results are theoretically consistent with dedifferentiation accounts of cognition and aging and show that less differentiated functional connectivities are associated with cognitive costs for both older and younger adults.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101311516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85101311516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.10.025
DO - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.10.025
M3 - Article
C2 - 33602583
AN - SCOPUS:85101311516
SN - 0197-4580
VL - 101
SP - 262
EP - 272
JO - Neurobiology of Aging
JF - Neurobiology of Aging
ER -