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Aging-related differences in the cortical network subserving intelligible speech.

Nanxi Fei¹, Jianqiao Ge¹, Yi Wang²

¹Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Brain and Language

|November 24, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Older adults show altered brain activity and connectivity when processing speech. Increased functional integration in frontal-temporal-parietal brain networks may aid spoken language comprehension in aging.

Keywords:

Aging Brain network Intelligible speech Language comprehension fMRI

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Speech Processing

Background:

Language communication is vital across the lifespan.
Understanding how aging impacts the brain's speech processing network is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate age-related differences in brain networks supporting intelligible speech.
To compare brain responses to intelligible versus unintelligible speech in older and young adults.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted.
Functional and effective connectivity were examined.

Main Results:

Older adults exhibited reduced activation in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for intelligible speech.
Lower regional pattern distinctions were observed in these areas in older adults.
Increased functional connectivity between left IFG and left angular gyrus (AG) was found.
Enhanced bidirectional effective connectivity between left aSTG and left AG was noted in older adults.

Conclusions:

Aging is associated with distinct cortical activity patterns during intelligible speech processing.
Increased frontal-temporal-parietal functional integration may compensate for age-related changes.
These findings suggest compensatory mechanisms in the aging brain for spoken language comprehension.