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@PHDTHESIS{Latz:861105,
author = {Latz, Anne},
title = {{N}eural correlates of age-related changes in cognitive
action control},
school = {HHU Düsseldorf},
type = {Dissertation},
reportid = {FZJ-2019-01670},
pages = {87},
year = {2019},
note = {Dissertation, HHU Düsseldorf, 2019},
abstract = {Demographic change leads to an increasing interest in the
healthy aging of the brain. The latter has been associated
with changes in different domains of cognitive performance
across the lifespan, including an age-related deterioration
in various aspects of cognitive action control. Analyzing
processes of cognitive action control, bottom-up and
top-down subprocesses can be differentiated. In previous
studies of healthy aging both decreases and increases in
regional brain activity have been associated with the aging
brain, leading to multiple theories on age-specific neural
alterations and yielding a shift to a more integrative view
on brain changes over the life span, among others in the
context of dynamic processes of neuroplasticity. The neural
correlates of an age-related decline in successfully
exerting cognitive action control are to a large extent
still elusive. We investigated age-related changes of the
subprocesses of cognitive action control by employing the
spatial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) task in a
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of a
population-based sample (n=252, 18-85 years). The SRC task
comprises two conditions: under the compatible condition an
ipsilateral manual reaction to the presented stimulus is
required, whereas the incompatible condition necessitates a
contralateral reaction and thus especially triggers top-down
directed subprocesses of cognitive action control.
Task-related performance (reaction time and error rate) was
analyzed on a behavioral level and included in the analysis
of the imaging data. Age was included as a covariate. We
hypothesized that the influence of age on cognitive action
control could be shown on a behavioral and on a neural level
and that it is at least partially shared with
performance-related effects across the lifespan on the
neural level, potentially reflected by neural hyperactivity.
On a behavioral level, our findings corroborated an
age-related decline in cognitive action control. On a neural
level, we replicated the general SRC task network and
delineated neural correlates of bottom-up and top-down
processes. Within this network we found age-related
hyperactivity in bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS),
superior parietal lobule, cerebellum, right inferior frontal
gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), mid-cingulate
cortex and left anterior Insula (aIns) when dealing with
incompatibility-induced response conflicts. We suggest that
worse age-related performance is associated with both
bottom-up and top-down processes when dealing with the SRC
task. Based on our data, as hypothesized, age-related
decline in cognitive action control is reflected in regional
hyperactivity, rather than hypoactivity. We identified aIns,
DLPFC and IPS as key neural correlates. Increased activation
of left aIns potentially reflects the higher age-related
demand for control and task-set maintenance dealing with
incompatibility. Hyperactivity in right DLPFC might be a
correlate of successful inhibition processes when dealing
with the task. The integrational role of the IPS is
highlighted by its age- and performance-related
hyperactivity. Our findings may reflect difficulties in
overriding bottom-up driven spatial orientation and the
requirement for additional controlled processing steps
dealing with incompatibility, which become more likely with
age. We suggest a significant influence of age on cognitive
action control, which is on a neural level at least
partially shared with performance-related effects across
lifespan. Regional hyperactivity might be compensatory for
complementary network changes (esp. functional
connectivity). Our findings moreover support the idea of
neuroplasticity. Additionally, we identified a putative
age-related decline in the ability to integrate semantic
knowledge with current task demands that might contribute to
the observed age-related decline in performance.},
cin = {INM-7},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)INM-7-20090406},
pnm = {571 - Connectivity and Activity (POF3-571)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF3-571},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/861105},
}