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Hemisphere- and condition-specific alpha oscillations support semantic and spatial cognition in aging.
Maggie P Rempe1,2, Danae S Manta3,4, Kayle Cohen3
1Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA. maggie.rempe@boystown.org.
Geroscience
|April 9, 2025
Summary
Older adults exhibit heightened brain oscillations during semantic tasks, suggesting compensatory mechanisms that maintain cognitive function with age. These age-related neural changes are specific to brain hemisphere and task type.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Aging Research
Background:
- Age-related changes in brain structure and function impact semantic knowledge processing.
- The precise role of these neural alterations in cognitive aging remains incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related changes in neural oscillations during semantic processing using magnetoencephalography (MEG).
- To explore how these neural oscillations mediate the relationship between age and behavioral performance.
Main Methods:
- Utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) on 130 participants (aged 21-87) performing a semantic judgment task.
- Applied beamforming to project task-related oscillatory responses into anatomical space.
- Employed voxel-wise linear mixed-effects models and mediation analyses to assess age effects and mediation by neural oscillations.
Main Results:
- Identified stronger left-lateralized alpha/beta oscillations in frontotemporal cortices during semantic trials.
- Observed stronger right-lateralized alpha/beta responses in temporoparietal regions during length trials.
- Found that older adults exhibited accentuated alpha and beta oscillations in specific brain regions, particularly during semantic processing and a length judgment task.
- Demonstrated that alpha oscillations mediated the age-behavior relationship in a hemisphere- and condition-specific manner.
Conclusions:
- Accentuated, hemisphere- and condition-specific neural oscillations in aging support compensatory processing.
- These findings align with neuroscientific models of cognitive aging and highlight mechanisms for maintaining behavioral performance.
- The study provides novel temporal, spectral, and spatial insights into dynamic functional mapping of semantic processing across the adult lifespan.
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