As the world ages, it becomes urgent to unravel the mechanisms underlying brain aging and find ways of intervening with them. While for decades cognitive aging has been related to localized brain changes, growing attention is now being paid to alterations in distributed brain networks. Functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) has become a particularly useful tool to explore large-scale brain networks; yet, the temporal course of connectivity lifetime changes has not been established. Here, an extensive cross-sectional sample (21-85 years old, = 887) from a public fcMRI database was used to characterize adult lifespan connectivity dynamics within and between seven brain networks: the default mode, salience, dorsal attention, fronto-parietal control, auditory, visual and motor networks. The entire cohort was divided into young (21-40 years, mean ± SD: 25.5 ± 4.8, = 543); middle-aged (41-60 years, 50.6 ± 5.4, = 238); and old (61 years and above, 69.0 ± 6.3, = 106) subgroups. Correlation matrices as well as a mixed model analysis of covariance indicated that within high-order cognitive networks a considerable connectivity decline is already evident by middle adulthood. In contrast, a motor network shows increased connectivity in middle adulthood and a subsequent decline. Additionally, alterations in inter-network interactions are noticeable primarily in the transition between young and middle adulthood. These results provide evidence that aging-related neural changes start early in adult life.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00330 | DOI Listing |
Scand J Med Sci Sports
January 2025
School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.
Long-term training enables professional athletes to develop concentrated and efficient neural network organizations for specific tasks. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate task performance, brain functional characteristics, and their relationships in footballers during sport-specific motor-cognitive processes. Twenty-four footballers (athlete group, with 18 remaining of good signal quality) and 20 non-footballers (control group, with 16 remaining) completed four tasks: a single task (trigger buttons corresponding to the appearance direction of teammates with kicking actions), an N-back direction task, a dual task, and an N-back digit task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biomed Phys Eng
December 2024
Medical Image and Signal Processing Research Center, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
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Front Neurosci
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Tübingen, Germany.
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Commun
December 2024
Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg 1700, Switzerland.
Individuals diagnosed with functional neurological disorder experience abnormal movement, gait, sensory processing or functional seizures, for which research into the pathophysiology identified psychosocial contributing factors as well as promising biomarkers. Recent pilot studies suggested that (epi-)genetic variants may act as vulnerability factors, for example, on the oxytocin pathway. This study set out to explore endogenous oxytocin hormone levels in saliva in a cohort of 59 functional neurological disorder patients and 65 healthy controls comparable in sex and age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurol
December 2024
Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Sleep disorder is an important risk factor for postpartum depression. Although previous research has explored brain activity in postpartum depression, it has not fully revealed how insomnia affect mood by altering interactions between brain regions. This study aim to investigate the relationship between insomnia and depressive status in postpartum women, utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to explore brain network topological properties.
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