Face processing changes in normal aging revealed by fMRI adaptation.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Aging Research

Background:

• Facial processing abilities decline with age.
• Understanding the neural basis of these changes is crucial for developing interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of facial processing changes in healthy aging.
• To examine how brain activity relates to behavioral performance in face perception tasks.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a face adaptation paradigm.
• Multivariate analysis correlating brain activation with behavioral performance in a face-matching task.

Main Results:

• Older adults exhibited reduced neural adaptation in the right fusiform face area (FFA) compared to young adults.
• High-performing older adults engaged similar face-processing networks as young adults, with some exceptions.
• Low-performing older adults showed less engagement of these networks.
• High-performing older adults uniquely recruited additional brain regions (e.g., left inferior occipital gyrus, frontal, parietal) for better performance.

Conclusions:

• Neuronal representations in core face-processing areas become less selective with age.
• Older adults may compensate for age-related declines in ventral face processing by engaging distinct neural networks.
• These compensatory networks are associated with preserved face-matching abilities in aging.