Aging and brain activation with working memory tasks: an fMRI study of connectivity

Joint contributions from brain activity and activity-independent functional connectivity to working memory aging

Working memory (WM) impairment has been well characterized in normal aging. Various studies have explored changes in either the regional activity or the interregional connectivity underlying the aging process of WM. We proposed that brain activity and connectivity would independently alter with aging and affect WM performance. WM was assessed with a classical N-back task during functional magnetic resonance imaging in a community-based sample comprising 168 elderly subjects (aged 55-86 years old). Following the rationale of background functional connectivity, we assessed age-related alterations in brain activity and seed-based interregional connectivity independently. Analyses revealed age-related decrease in positive activity of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and an increase in the negative activity of the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the local functional dysfunctions were accompanied by alterations in their connectivity to other cortical regions. Importantly, regional activity impairments in the IPL and ACC could mediate age-related effects on accuracy rate and reaction time, respectively, and those effects were further counterbalanced by enhancement of their background functional connectivity. We thus claimed that age-induced alterations in regional activity and interregional connectivity occurred independently and contributed to WM changes in aging. Our findings presented the way brain activity and functional connectivity interact in the late adulthood, thus providing a new perspective for understanding WM and cognitive aging.

A Neuroscience Primer for Integrating Geroscience With the Neurobiology of Aging

Neuroscience has a rich history of studies focusing on neurobiology of aging. However, much of the aging studies in neuroscience occur outside of the gerosciences. The goal of this primer is 2-fold: first, to briefly highlight some of the history of aging neurobiology and second, to introduce to geroscientists the broad spectrum of methodological approaches neuroscientists use to study the neurobiology of aging. This primer is accompanied by a corresponding geroscience primer, as well as a perspective on the current challenges and triumphs of the current divide across these 2 fields. This series of manuscripts is intended to foster enhanced collaborations between neuroscientists and geroscientists with the intent of strengthening the field of cognitive aging through inclusion of parameters from both areas of expertise.

Inhibition of emotions in healthy aging: age-related differences in brain network connectivity

INTRODUCTION

Successful inhibition of distracting emotions is important for preserving well-being and daily functioning. There is conflicting evidence regarding the impact of healthy aging on emotional inhibition, and possible age-related alterations in the neuronal underpinnings of emotional interference processing are unexplored.

METHODS

Thirty younger (mean age 26 years; 15 women) and 30 older (mean age 71 years; 13 women) healthy adults performed a face-word emotional Stroop task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. A resting-state scan was acquired for calculating the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations as an estimate of vascular reactivity. Comparisons of brain activation during the task were assessed in a whole-brain, voxel-wise analysis, contrasting congruent, and incongruent conditions. The canonical regions of the frontoparietal, salience, dorsal attention, and default mode networks were used as seed regions for assessing functional connectivity within and between large-scale brain networks. Task performance was evaluated using response accuracy and response time.

RESULTS

The older adults had longer response times and lower task accuracy than the younger adults, but the emotional interference effect was not significantly different between the groups. Whole-brain analysis revealed no significant age-related differences in brain activation patterns. Rescaling the data for estimated variability in vascular reactivity did not affect the results. In older adults, there was relatively stronger functional connectivity with the default mode network, the sensorimotor network, and the dorsal attention network for the frontoparietal and salience network seeds during the task. Conversely, younger adults had relatively stronger connections within and between the frontoparietal and salience networks.

CONCLUSION

In this first fMRI study of emotional Stroop interference in older and younger adults, we found that the emotional interference effect was unchanged in healthy aging and replicated the finding from non-emotional task studies that older adults have greater between-network and less within-network connectivity compared to younger adults.

Sex-specific incident dementia in patients with central nervous system trauma

Introduction

Despite evidence that central nervous system (CNS) trauma, including traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, can cause sustained neurocognitive impairment, it remains unclear whether trauma-related variables are associated with incident dementia independently of other known risk factors.

Methods

All adults without dementia entering the health-care system with diagnoses of CNS trauma were examined for occurrence of dementia. All trauma-related variables were examined as predictors in sex-specific Cox regression models, controlling for other known risk factors.

Results

Over a median follow-up of 52 months, 32,834 of 712,708 patients (4.6%) developed dementia. Traumatic brain injury severity and spinal cord injury interacted with age to influence dementia onset; women were at a greater risk of developing dementia earlier than men, all other factors being equal.

Discussion

Risk stratification of patients with CNS trauma by sex is vital in identifying those most likely to develop dementia and in understanding the course and modifying factors.

Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects

Recent studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is potentially useful to improve working memory. In the present study, young and elderly subjects performed a working memory task (n-back task) during an electroencephalogram recording before and after receiving anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We investigated modulations of behavioral performance and electrophysiological correlates of working memory processes (frontal and parietal P300 event-related potentials). A strong tendency to modulated working memory performance was observed after the application of tDCS. In detail, young, but not elderly, subjects benefited from additional practice in the absence of real tDCS, as indicated by their more accurate responses after sham tDCS. The cathodal tDCS had no effect in any group of participants. Importantly, anodal tDCS improved accuracy in elderly. Moreover, increased accuracy after anodal tDCS was correlated with a larger frontal P300 amplitude. These findings suggest that, in elderly subjects, improved working memory after anodal tDCS applied over the left DLPFC may be related to the promotion of frontal compensatory mechanisms, which are related to attentional processes.

Patterns of effective connectivity during memory encoding and retrieval differ between patients with mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults

Previous research has shown that there is considerable overlap in the neural networks mediating successful memory encoding and retrieval. However, little is known about how the relevant human brain regions interact during these distinct phases of memory or how such interactions are affected by memory deficits that characterize mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that often precedes dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. Here we employed multivariate Granger causality analysis using autoregressive modeling of inferred neuronal time series obtained by deconvolving the hemodynamic response function from measured blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) time series data, in order to examine the effective connectivity between brain regions during successful encoding and/or retrieval of object location associations in MCI patients and comparable healthy older adults. During encoding, healthy older adults demonstrated a left hemisphere dominant pattern where the inferior frontal junction, anterior intraparietal sulcus (likely involving the parietal eye fields), and posterior cingulate cortex drove activation in most left hemisphere regions and virtually every right hemisphere region tested. These regions are part of a frontoparietal network that mediates top-down cognitive control and is implicated in successful memory formation. In contrast, in the MCI patients, the right frontal eye field drove activation in every left hemisphere region examined, suggesting reliance on more basic visual search processes. Retrieval in the healthy older adults was primarily driven by the right hippocampus with lesser contributions of the right anterior thalamic nuclei and right inferior frontal sulcus, consistent with theoretical models holding the hippocampus as critical for the successful retrieval of memories. The pattern differed in MCI patients, in whom the right inferior frontal junction and right anterior thalamus drove successful memory retrieval, reflecting the characteristic hippocampal dysfunction of these patients. These findings demonstrate that neural network interactions differ markedly between MCI patients and healthy older adults. Future efforts will investigate the impact of cognitive rehabilitation of memory on these connectivity patterns.

Orbitofrontal cortex volume in area 11/13 predicts reward devaluation, but not reversal learning performance, in young and aged monkeys

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and amygdala are both necessary for decisions based on expected outcomes. Although behavioral and imaging data suggest that these brain regions are affected by advanced age, the extent to which aging alters appetitive processes coordinated by the OFC and the amygdala is unknown. In the current experiment, young and aged bonnet macaques were trained on OFC- and amygdala-dependent tasks that test the degree to which response selection is guided by reward value and can be adapted when expected outcomes change. To assess whether the structural integrity of these regions varies with levels of performance on reward devaluation and object reversal tasks, volumes of areas 11/13 and 14 of the OFC, central/medial (CM), and basolateral (BL) nuclei of the amygdala were determined from high-resolution anatomical MRIs. With age, there were significant reductions in OFC, but not CM and BL, volume. Moreover, the aged monkeys showed impairments in the ability to associate an object with a higher value reward, and to reverse a previously learned association. Interestingly, greater OFC volume of area 11/13, but not 14, was significantly correlated with an animal's ability to anticipate the reward outcome associated with an object, and smaller BL volume was predictive of an animal's tendency to choose a higher value reward, but volume of neither region correlated with reversal learning. Together, these data indicate that OFC volume has an impact on monkeys' ability to guide choice behavior based on reward value but does not impact ability to reverse a previously learned association.

A systematic review of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension in imaging studies of cognitive aging: time to establish new norms

The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and hypertension in older adults, and the deleterious effect of these conditions on cerebrovascular and brain health, is creating a growing discrepancy between the "typical" cognitive aging trajectory and a "healthy" cognitive aging trajectory. These changing health demographics make T2DM and hypertension important topics of study in their own right, and warrant attention from the perspective of cognitive aging neuroimaging research. Specifically, interpretation of individual or group differences in blood oxygenation level dependent magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD MRI) or positron emission tomography (PET H2O(15)) signals as reflective of differences in neural activation underlying a cognitive operation of interest requires assumptions of intact vascular health amongst the study participants. Without adequate screening, inclusion of individuals with T2DM or hypertension in "healthy" samples may introduce unwanted variability and bias to brain and/or cognitive measures, and increase potential for error. We conducted a systematic review of the cognitive aging neuroimaging literature to document the extent to which researchers account for these conditions. Of the 232 studies selected for review, few explicitly excluded individuals with T2DM (9%) or hypertension (13%). A large portion had exclusion criteria that made it difficult to determine whether T2DM or hypertension were excluded (44 and 37%), and many did not mention any selection criteria related to T2DM or hypertension (34 and 22%). Of all the surveyed studies, only 29% acknowledged or addressed the potential influence of intersubject vascular variability on the measured BOLD or PET signals. To reinforce the notion that individuals with T2DM and hypertension should not be overlooked as a potential source of bias, we also provide an overview of metabolic and vascular changes associated with T2DM and hypertension, as they relate to cerebrovascular and brain health.

Effects of age on the structure of functional connectivity networks during episodic and working memory demand

The aim of the study was to investigate age-related differences in large-scale functional connectivity networks during episodic and working memory challenge. A graph theoretical approach was used providing an exhaustive set of topological measures to quantify age-related differences in the network structure on various scales. In a single session, 10 young (22-30 years) and 10 senior (62-77 years) subjects performed an episodic and a working memory task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Networks of functional connectivity were constructed by correlating the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal for every pair of voxels. Statistical network parameters yield a global characterization of the network topology, the quantification of the importance of specific regions, and shifts in local connectivity. An age-related increase in the density and size of the networks and loss of small-worldness was observed, related to an expanded distribution of brain activity during both memory demands in seniors, and a more specific and localized activity in young subjects. In addition, we found highly symmetrical neural networks in young subjects accompanied by a strong coupling between parietal and occipital regions. In contrast, seniors showed pronounced left-hemispheric asymmetry with decreased connectivity within occipital areas, but increased connectivity within parietal areas. Moreover, seniors engaged an additional frontal network strongly connected to parietal areas. In contrast to young subjects, seniors showed an almost identical structure of network connectivity during both memory tasks. The chosen network approach is explorative and hypothesis-free. Our results extend seed-based and BOLD-signal intensity focused studies, and support present hypotheses like compensation and dedifferentiation.

Lifespan age differences in working memory: a two-component framework

We suggest that working memory (WM) performance can be conceptualized as the interplay of low-level feature binding processes and top-down control, relating to posterior and frontal brain regions and their interaction in a distributed neural network. We propose that due to age-differential trajectories of posterior and frontal brain regions top-down control processes are not fully mature until young adulthood and show marked decline with advancing age, whereas binding processes are relatively mature in children, but show senescent decline in older adults. A review of the literature spanning from middle childhood to old age shows that binding and top-down control processes undergo profound changes across the lifespan. We illustrate commonalities and dissimilarities between children, younger adults, and older adults reflecting the change in the two components' relative contribution to visual WM performance across the lifespan using results from our own lab. We conclude that an integrated account of visual WM lifespan changes combining research from behavioral neuroscience and cognitive psychology of child development as well as aging research opens avenues to advance our understanding of cognition in general.

Enhanced motor learning in older adults is accompanied by increased bilateral frontal and fronto-parietal connectivity

We recently demonstrated that older adults can benefit as much as younger adults from learning skills in an interleaved manner. Here we investigate whether optimized learning through interleaved practice (IP) is associated with changes in inter-regional brain connectivity and whether younger and older adults differ in such brain-behavior correlations. Younger and older adults practiced a set of three 4-element motor sequences in a repetitive or in an interleaved order for 2 consecutive days. Retention of the practiced sequences was evaluated 3 days after practice with functional images acquired simultaneously. A within-subject design was used so that subjects practiced sequences in the other condition (repetitive or interleaved) 2-4 weeks later. Using the psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis approach, we found that IP led to higher functional connectivity between the right and left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and between the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in older adults. Moreover, increased connectivity between these regions was significantly associated with the learning benefits of IP. In contrast, in younger adults, enhanced learning as a result of IP was associated with increased connectivity between DLPFC and the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the inferior frontal gyrus. These data suggest that though younger and older gain similar behavioral benefits from interleaved training, aging may alter the operation of brain networks underlying such optimized learning.

Is there a link between childhood trauma, cognition, and amygdala and hippocampus volume in first-episode psychosis?

Patients with psychosis have higher rates of childhood trauma, which is also associated with adverse effects on cognitive functions such as attention, concentration and mental speed, language, and verbal intelligence. Although the pathophysiological substrate for this association remains unclear, these cognitive deficits may represent the functional correlate of changes observed in relation to trauma exposure in structures such as the amygdala and the hippocampus. Interestingly, these structures are often reported as altered in psychosis. This study investigated the association between childhood trauma, cognitive function and amygdala and hippocampus volume, in first-episode psychosis. We investigated 83 patients with first-episode psychosis and 63 healthy controls. All participants underwent an MRI scan acquired with a GE Sigma 1.5-T system, and a standardized neuropsychological assessment of general cognition, memory, processing speed, executive function, visuo-spatial abilities, verbal intelligence, and language. In a subsample of the patients (N=45) information on childhood trauma was collected with the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q). We found that amygdala, but not hippocampus, volume was significantly smaller (p=0.001) in patients compared to healthy controls. There was a trend level interaction for hippocampus volume between group and sex (p=0.056). A history of childhood trauma was associated with both worse cognitive performance and smaller amygdala volume. This smaller amygdala appeared to mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and performance on executive function, language and verbal intelligence in patients with psychosis. This points to a complex relationship between childhood trauma exposure, cognitive function and amygdala volume in first-episode psychosis.

More is less: emotion induced prefrontal cortex activity habituates in aging

Several recent studies have documented age-related changes in brain activity--less amygdala activity and higher prefrontal activity in response to emotional stimuli. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined whether aging also affects the maintenance of activity to emotional stimuli and whether maintenance differs by the valence (negative, neutral and positive) of the pictures. Younger participants had a larger volume of activity in the amygdala but less in the prefrontal cortex than the old. The old showed more habituation to highly arousing negative but not positive or neutral stimuli in prefrontal cortex as compared to younger participants. Thus prefrontal cortex activity indexes emotion in the elderly, but not the young. Amplified prefrontal activity suggests elderly increase cognitive control for negative, highly arousing emotional stimuli, but it is not maintained. Taken together, age-related increases in prefrontal activity and reduced amygdala activity may underlie observed affective changes in aging.

Load Modulation of BOLD Response and Connectivity Predicts Working Memory Performance in Younger and Older Adults

Individual differences in working memory (WM) performance have rarely been related to individual differences in the functional responsivity of the WM brain network. By neglecting person-to-person variation, comparisons of network activity between younger and older adults using functional imaging techniques often confound differences in activity with age trends in WM performance. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the relations among WM performance, neural activity in the WM network, and adult age using a parametric letter n-back task in 30 younger adults (21–31 years) and 30 older adults (60–71 years). Individual differences in the WM network's responsivity to increasing task difficulty were related to WM performance, with a more responsive BOLD signal predicting greater WM proficiency. Furthermore, individuals with higher WM performance showed greater change in connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left premotor cortex across load. We conclude that a more responsive WM network contributes to higher WM performance, regardless of adult age. Our results support the notion that individual differences in WM performance are important to consider when studying the WM network, particularly in age-comparative studies.

Working memory load modulation of parieto-frontal connections: evidence from dynamic causal modeling

Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that working memory load has marked effects on regional neural activation. However, the mechanism through which working memory load modulates brain connectivity is still unclear. In this study, this issue was addressed using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Eighteen normal healthy subjects were scanned while they performed a working memory task with variable memory load, as parameterized by two levels of memory delay and three levels of digit load (number of digits presented in each visual stimulus). Eight regions of interest, i.e., bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), inferior frontal cortex (IFC), and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), were chosen for DCM analyses. Analysis of the behavioral data during the fMRI scan revealed that accuracy decreased as digit load increased. Bayesian inference on model structure indicated that a bilinear DCM in which memory delay was the driving input to bilateral PPC and in which digit load modulated several parieto-frontal connections was the optimal model. Analysis of model parameters showed that higher digit load enhanced connection from L PPC to L IFC, and lower digit load inhibited connection from R PPC to L ACC. These findings suggest that working memory load modulates brain connectivity in a parieto-frontal network, and may reflect altered neuronal processes, e.g., information processing or error monitoring, with the change in working memory load. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of aging on default mode network activity in resting state fMRI: does the method of analysis matter?

Functional MRI (fMRI) of default mode network (DMN) brain activity during resting state is gaining attention as a potential non-invasive biomarker to diagnose incipient Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this study was to identify effects of normal aging on the DMN using different methods of fMRI processing and evaluation.

METHODS

fMRI was acquired in 17 young and 21 old healthy subjects and the data were analyzed with (a) volumes of interest (VOI)-based signal time course and (b) independent component analyses (ICA). In the first approach, the strength of DMN region inter-connectivity (as expressed with correlation coefficients) was of primary interest, the second method provided a measure of the magnitude of DMN co-activation.

RESULTS

The older subjects exhibited significantly lower DMN activity in the posterior cingulate (PCC, t-test P<.001) as well as a tendency to lower activity in all other DMN regions in comparison to the younger subjects. We found no significant effect of age on DMN inter-connectivity.

CONCLUSION

Effects of normal aging such as loss of PCC co-activity could be detected by ICA, but not by signal time course correlation analyses of DMN inter-connectivity. This either indicates lower sensitivity of inter-connectivity measures to detect subtle DMN changes or indicate that ICA and time course analyses determine different properties of DMN co-activation. Our results, therefore, provide fundamental knowledge for a potential future use of functional MRI as biomarker for neurodegenerative dementias where diminished DMN activity needs to be reliably differentiated from that observed in health aging.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of compensatory neural recruitment in aging and risk for Alzheimer's disease: review and recommendations

There has been a recent proliferation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that interpret between-group or within-group differences in brain response patterns as evidence for compensatory neural recruitment. However, it is currently a challenge to determine whether these observed differences are truly attributable to compensatory neural recruitment or whether they are indicative of some other cognitive or physiological process. Therefore, the need for a standardized set of criteria for interpreting whether differences in brain response patterns are compensatory in nature is great. Focusing on studies of aging and potentially prodromal Alzheimer's disease conditions (genetic risk, mild cognitive impairment), we critically review the functional neuroimaging literature purporting evidence for compensatory neural recruitment. Finally, we end with a comprehensive model set of criteria for ascertaining the degree to which a 'compensatory' interpretation may be supported. This proposed model addresses significant brain region, activation pattern, and behavioral performance considerations, and is therefore termed the Region-Activation-Performance model (RAP model).

Age-related alterations in default mode network: impact on working memory performance

The default mode network (DMN) is a set of functionally connected brain regions which shows deactivation (task-induced deactivation, TID) during a cognitive task. Evidence shows an age-related decline in task-load-related modulation of the activity within the DMN during cognitive tasks. However, the effect of age on the functional coupling within the DMN and their relation to cognitive performance has hitherto been unexplored. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated functional connectivity within the DMN in older and younger subjects during a working memory task with increasing task load. Older adults showed decreased connectivity and ability to suppress low frequency oscillations of the DMN. Additionally, the strength of the functional coupling of posterior cingulate (pCC) with medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) correlated positively with performance and was lower in older adults. pCC was also negatively coupled with task-related regions, namely the dorsolateral PFC and cingulate regions. Our results show that in addition to changes in canonical task-related brain regions, normal aging is also associated with alterations in the activity and connectivity of brain regions within the DMN. These changes may be a reflection of a deficit in cognitive control associated with advancing age that results in deficient resource allocation to the task at hand.

Relationship between mRNA expression of splice forms of the zeta1 subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor and spatial memory in aged mice

Age-related changes in the protein and mRNA expression of some of the splice forms of the zeta1 (NR1) subunit of the NMDA receptor have been seen in mice and rats. The present study was designed to determine whether individual splice forms of the zeta1 subunit of the NMDA receptor within prefrontal/frontal cortical regions contribute to memory deficits during aging and whether experience in learning tasks can influence the expression of the splice forms. mRNA expression of 4 splice forms (zeta1-1, zeta1-3, zeta1-a and zeta1-b) and mRNA for all known splice forms (zeta1-pan) were examined by in situ hybridization. mRNA for C-terminal splice forms, zeta1-1 (+ C1 and + C2 cassettes) and zeta1-3 (+ C1 and + C2'), showed significant declines during aging in several brain regions even though overall zeta1-pan mRNA expression was not significantly affected by aging. This suggests that these splice forms are more influenced by aging than the subunit as a whole. There was an increase in the expression of zeta1-a (-N1 cassette) splice form in the behaviorally-experienced old mice relative to the younger groups. Old mice with high levels of mRNA expression for the zeta1-a splice form in orbital cortex showed the best performances in the working memory task, but the poorest performances in the cued, associative learning task. These results suggest that there is a complex interaction between zeta1 splice form expression and performance of memory tasks during aging.

Reduced resting-state brain activity in the "default network" in normal aging

Normal aging is associated with cognitive decline. Functions such as attention, information processing, and working memory are compromised. It has been hypothesized that not only regional changes, but also alterations in the integration of regional brain activity (functional brain connectivity) underlie the observed age-related deficits. Here, we examined the functional properties of brain networks based on spontaneous fluctuations within brain systems using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We hypothesized that functional connectivity of intrinsic brain activity in the "default-mode" network (DMN) is affected by normal aging and that this relates to cognitive function. Ten younger and 22 older subjects were scanned at "rest," that is, lying awake with eyes closed. Our results show decreased activity in older versus younger subjects in 2 resting-state networks (RSNs) resembling the previously described DMN, containing the superior and middle frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate, middle temporal gyrus, and the superior parietal region. These results remain significant after correction for RSN-specific gray matter volume. The relevance of these findings is illustrated by the correlation between reduced activity of one of these RSNs and less effective executive functioning/processing speed in the older group.