Prefronto-Striatal Structural Connectivity Mediates Adult Age Differences in Action Selection
Amirhossein Rasooli1,2, Hamed Zivari Adab3,2, Sima Chalavi1,2
1Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium.
Summary
Older adults show slower action selection due to declining prefronto-striatal brain connectivity. This study links white matter changes to age-related deficits in choosing actions, impacting daily function.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Aging
- Motor Control
Background:
- Action selection is vital for goal-directed behavior in complex environments.
- Neural mechanisms of action selection and their aging effects require further study.
- Healthy aging impacts cognitive and motor functions, necessitating research into underlying neural changes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms of action selection in healthy adults across the lifespan.
- To examine the impact of aging on action selection performance and prefronto-striatal structural connectivity.
- To determine if prefronto-striatal connectivity mediates the relationship between age and action selection.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 89 healthy adults (20-75 years).
- Multilimb reaction time task assessing effector selection.
- Diffusion MRI to analyze structural connectivity between prefrontal and striatal regions.
Main Results:
- Increasing age correlated with slower action selection performance.
- Aging negatively affected prefronto-striatal structural connectivity.
- Prefronto-striatal connectivity mediated the association between age and action selection deficits.
Conclusions:
- White matter decline in prefronto-striatal pathways contributes to poorer action selection in older adults.
- Reduced structural connectivity, particularly between specific frontal and striatal areas, underlies age-related action selection impairments.
- Maintaining prefronto-striatal pathways is crucial for behavioral flexibility and independence in aging.
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