Preserved cognitive functions with age are determined by domain-dependent shifts in network responsivity

Nitin Williams; Cam-CAN consortium

doi:10.1038/ncomms14743

Preserved cognitive functions with age are determined by domain-dependent shifts in network responsivity

Nitin Williams
, Cam-CAN consortium

Not published at Aalto University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

Healthy ageing has disparate effects on different cognitive domains. The neural basis of these differences, however, is largely unknown. We investigated this question by using Independent Components Analysis to obtain functional brain components from 98 healthy participants aged 23-87 years from the population-based Cam-CAN cohort. Participants performed two cognitive tasks that show age-related decrease (fluid intelligence and object naming) and a syntactic comprehension task that shows age-related preservation. We report that activation of task-positive neural components predicts inter-individual differences in performance in each task across the adult lifespan. Furthermore, only the two tasks that show performance declines with age show age-related decreases in task-positive activation of neural components and decreasing default mode (DM) suppression. Our results suggest that distributed, multi-component brain responsivity supports cognition across the adult lifespan, and the maintenance of this, along with maintained DM deactivation, characterizes successful ageing and may explain differential ageing trajectories across cognitive domains.

Original language	English
Article number	14743
Number of pages	14
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14743
Publication status	Published - 8 May 2017
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) research was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (grant number BB/H008217/1). K.A.T. is supported by Wellcome Trust (RG73750-RRZA/040) and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF160048). We are grateful to the Cam-CAN respondents and their primary care teams in Cambridge for their participation in this study. We also thank colleagues at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit MEG and MRI facilities for their assistance.

Keywords

BRAINS DEFAULT NETWORK
CONNECTIVITY
MODE
MRI
STATE
SYSTEMS
CORTEX
MEMORY
FMRI

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10.1038/ncomms14743

Cite this

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title = "Preserved cognitive functions with age are determined by domain-dependent shifts in network responsivity",

abstract = "Healthy ageing has disparate effects on different cognitive domains. The neural basis of these differences, however, is largely unknown. We investigated this question by using Independent Components Analysis to obtain functional brain components from 98 healthy participants aged 23-87 years from the population-based Cam-CAN cohort. Participants performed two cognitive tasks that show age-related decrease (fluid intelligence and object naming) and a syntactic comprehension task that shows age-related preservation. We report that activation of task-positive neural components predicts inter-individual differences in performance in each task across the adult lifespan. Furthermore, only the two tasks that show performance declines with age show age-related decreases in task-positive activation of neural components and decreasing default mode (DM) suppression. Our results suggest that distributed, multi-component brain responsivity supports cognition across the adult lifespan, and the maintenance of this, along with maintained DM deactivation, characterizes successful ageing and may explain differential ageing trajectories across cognitive domains.",

keywords = "BRAINS DEFAULT NETWORK, CONNECTIVITY, MODE, MRI, STATE, SYSTEMS, CORTEX, MEMORY, FMRI",

author = "David Samu and Campbell, \{Karen L.\} and Tsvetanov, \{Kamen A.\} and Shafto, \{Meredith A.\} and Tyler, \{Lorraine K.\} and Nitin Williams and \{Cam-CAN consortium\}",

year = "2017",

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doi = "10.1038/ncomms14743",

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T1 - Preserved cognitive functions with age are determined by domain-dependent shifts in network responsivity

AU - Samu, David

AU - Campbell, Karen L.

AU - Tsvetanov, Kamen A.

AU - Shafto, Meredith A.

AU - Tyler, Lorraine K.

AU - Williams, Nitin

AU - Cam-CAN consortium

PY - 2017/5/8

Y1 - 2017/5/8

N2 - Healthy ageing has disparate effects on different cognitive domains. The neural basis of these differences, however, is largely unknown. We investigated this question by using Independent Components Analysis to obtain functional brain components from 98 healthy participants aged 23-87 years from the population-based Cam-CAN cohort. Participants performed two cognitive tasks that show age-related decrease (fluid intelligence and object naming) and a syntactic comprehension task that shows age-related preservation. We report that activation of task-positive neural components predicts inter-individual differences in performance in each task across the adult lifespan. Furthermore, only the two tasks that show performance declines with age show age-related decreases in task-positive activation of neural components and decreasing default mode (DM) suppression. Our results suggest that distributed, multi-component brain responsivity supports cognition across the adult lifespan, and the maintenance of this, along with maintained DM deactivation, characterizes successful ageing and may explain differential ageing trajectories across cognitive domains.

AB - Healthy ageing has disparate effects on different cognitive domains. The neural basis of these differences, however, is largely unknown. We investigated this question by using Independent Components Analysis to obtain functional brain components from 98 healthy participants aged 23-87 years from the population-based Cam-CAN cohort. Participants performed two cognitive tasks that show age-related decrease (fluid intelligence and object naming) and a syntactic comprehension task that shows age-related preservation. We report that activation of task-positive neural components predicts inter-individual differences in performance in each task across the adult lifespan. Furthermore, only the two tasks that show performance declines with age show age-related decreases in task-positive activation of neural components and decreasing default mode (DM) suppression. Our results suggest that distributed, multi-component brain responsivity supports cognition across the adult lifespan, and the maintenance of this, along with maintained DM deactivation, characterizes successful ageing and may explain differential ageing trajectories across cognitive domains.

KW - BRAINS DEFAULT NETWORK

KW - CONNECTIVITY

KW - MODE

KW - MRI

KW - STATE

KW - SYSTEMS

KW - CORTEX

KW - MEMORY

KW - FMRI

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms14743

DO - 10.1038/ncomms14743

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 8

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 14743

ER -

Preserved cognitive functions with age are determined by domain-dependent shifts in network responsivity

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

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