fMRI study in posterior cingulate and adjacent precuneus cortex in healthy elderly adults using problem solving task.

Purpose: To explore the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the adjacent precuneus regions in healthy elderly adults during problem solving tasks.

Materials And Methods: Eighteen participants (7 women, mean age of 63.6±6.0 years old) were analyzed. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks were simplified 4×4 Sudoku puzzles that were divided into simple tasks (using the row rule or the column rule to solve the puzzle) and complex tasks (using both the row and column rules to solve the puzzle).

Results: The mean accuracy on the simple task was higher than that on the complex task (P=0.04); the reaction time on the simple task was shorter than that on the complex task (P=0.001). On both tasks, the participants showed deactivation in the bilateral PCC/precuneus regions. The extent of deactivation on the complex task was greater than that on the simple task (left: P=0.04; right: P=0.04).

Conclusions: Healthy elderly adults showed deactivation in the bilateral PCC and precuneus regions during a problem solving task; in addition, the extent of deactivation was enhanced by increasing the difficulty of the problem solving task.