The Physiologic Complexity of Prefrontal Oxygenation Dynamics Is Associated With Age and Executive Function: An Exploratory Study

The hemodynamics of prefrontal cortex (PFC) oxygenation are regulated by numerous processes operating over multiple temporal scales, producing complex patterns in its output fluctuations. Age may alter this multiscale regulation of PFC oxygenation, leading to diminished physiologic complexity of this important regulatory process. We aimed to characterize the effects of age on such complexity and its relationship to performance of an executive n-back task.

Twenty-four younger (aged 28 ± 3 years) and 27 older (aged 78 ± 6 years) adults completed this study. Continuous oxygenation (HbO2) and deoxygenation (HHb) signals of PFC were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while participants stood and watched a blank screen (blank), clicked a mouse when an X appeared (IdX), or when a letter was repeated from "2-back" in a sequence shown on a screen (2-back). We used multiscale entropy to quantify the HbO2 and HHb complexity of fNIRS signals.

Older adults exhibited lower HbO2 and HHb complexity compared to younger adults, regardless of task (p = .0005-.002). Both groups exhibited greater complexity during the IdX and 2-back than blank task (p = .02-.04). Across all participants, those with greater HbO2 and/or HHb complexity during the blank task exhibited faster IdX and 2-back reaction time (β = -0.56 to -0.6, p = .009-.02). Those demonstrating greater increase in HbO2 and/or HHb complexity from IdX to 2-back task had lower percent increase in reaction time from IdX to 2-back task (β = -0.41 to -0.37, p = .005-.01).

The complexity of fNIRS-measured PFC oxygenation fluctuations may capture the influence of aging on the regulation of prefrontal hemodynamics involved in executive-function-based task performance.