Working memory performance is related to intrinsic resting state functional connectivity changes in community-dwelling elderly cohort.

Characterization of normal age-related changes in resting state brain networks associated with working memory performance is a major prerequisite for studying neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between performing a working memory task (under MRI) and resting-state brain networks in a large cohort of healthy elderly subjects (n=337). Functional connectivity and interactions between networks were assessed within the default mode (DMN), salience (SN), and right and left central executive (CEN) networks in two groups of subjects classed by their performance (low and high). The low performance group showed lower functional connectivity in both the DMN and SN, and higher functional connectivity in the right and left CEN compared to the high performance group. Overall the functional connectivity within the DMN and the CEN were correlated. The lower functional connectivity within the DMN and SN in the low performance group is suggestive of altered attentional and memory processes and/or altered motivation. The higher functional connectivity within the CEN could be related to compensatory mechanisms, without which the subjects would have even lower performances. The correlation between the DMN and CEN suggests a modulation between the lower functional connectivity within the DMN and the higher functional connectivity within the CEN when performance is reduced. Finally, this study suggests that performance modifications in healthy elderly subjects are associated with reorganization of functional connectivity within the DMN, SN, and CEN.