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Brain activation during visual working memory correlates with behavioral mobility performance in older adults.
Toshikazu Kawagoe1, Maki Suzuki2, Shu Nishiguchi3
1Graduate School of Social and Cultural Sciences, Kumamoto University Kumamoto, Japan ; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Tokyo, Japan.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
|October 21, 2015
Summary
Older adults with lower mobility show altered brain activity during memory tasks, using more frontal and less subcortical resources. This suggests a common neural basis for age-related declines in working memory and functional mobility.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gerontology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Age-related decline in functional mobility and cognitive function is common.
- Previous research linked the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) mobility measure to visual working memory (WM) performance in older adults.
- A shared neural basis between mobility and visual WM is suggested.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the association between working memory and functional mobility in older adults.
- To test the hypothesis that individuals with lower mobility exhibit increased "attentional" brain activation for easy working memory tasks, consistent with neural compensation models in aging.
Main Methods:
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activation during easy working memory tasks in 32 healthy older adults.
- Mobility was assessed using the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) and a simple walking test.
- Correlations between brain activation patterns, working memory performance, and mobility measures were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Working memory performance correlated significantly with TUG scores, but not with the simple walking test.
- Prefrontal brain activation during WM tasks was negatively correlated with TUG performance, while subcortical activations (thalamus, putamen, cerebellum) were positively correlated.
- Subcortical activation levels were associated with WM performance, with lower performers showing less activation in these regions.
Conclusions:
- Older adults with lower functional mobility utilized more cortical (frontal) and less subcortical brain resources for easy working memory tasks.
- The study identified degraded activation in subcortical regions, suggesting underlying dysfunction associated with lower mobility and cognitive performance.
- A common neural pattern of dysfunction and compensation likely underlies the link between visual working memory and functional mobility in aging.
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