The role of the arousal system in age-related differences in cortical functional network architecture.
View / Open Files
Publication Date
2022-02-15Journal Title
Human Brain Mapping
ISSN
1065-9471
Publisher
Wiley Open Access
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Guardia, T., Geerligs, L., Tsvetanov, K. A., Ye, R., & Campbell, K. L. (2022). The role of the arousal system in age-related differences in cortical functional network architecture.. Human Brain Mapping https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25701
Abstract
A common finding in the aging literature is that of the brain's decreased within- and increased between-network functional connectivity. However, it remains unclear what is causing this shift in network organization with age. Given the essential role of the ascending arousal system (ARAS) in cortical activation and previous findings of disrupted ARAS functioning with age, it is possible that age differences in ARAS functioning contribute to disrupted cortical connectivity. We test this possibility here using resting state fMRI data from over 500 individuals across the lifespan from the Cambridge Center for Aging and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) population-based cohort. Our results show that ARAS-cortical connectivity declines with age and, consistent with our expectations, significantly mediates some age-related differences in connectivity within and between association networks (specifically, within the default mode and between the default mode and salience networks). Additionally, connectivity between the ARAS and association networks predicted cognitive performance across several tasks over and above the effects of age and connectivity within the cortical networks themselves. These findings suggest that age differences in cortical connectivity may be driven, at least in part, by altered arousal signals from the brainstem and that ARAS-cortical connectivity relates to cognitive performance with age.
Keywords
ascending arousal system, fMRI, functional networks, neurocognitive aging
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/H008217/1)
British Academy (pf160048)
Guarantors of Brain (Unknown)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25701
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/330728
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.