Functional Implications of Age Differences in Motor System Connectivity

Overview

Journal Front Syst Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2010 Jul 1

PMID 20589101

Citations 83

Authors

Jeanne Langan

Scott J Peltier

Jin Bo

Brett W Fling

Robert C Welsh

Rachael D Seidler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Older adults show less lateralized task-related brain activity than young adults. One potential mechanism of this increased activation is that age-related degeneration of the corpus callosum (CC) may alter the balance of inhibition between the two hemispheres. To determine whether age differences in interhemispheric connectivity affect functional brain activity in older adults, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess resting functional connectivity and functional activation during a simple motor task. We found that older adults had smaller CC area compared to young adults. Older adults exhibited greater recruitment of ipsilateral primary motor cortex (M1), which was associated with longer reaction times. Additionally, recruitment of ipsilateral M1 in older adults was correlated with reduced resting interhemispheric connectivity and a larger CC. We suggest that reduced interhemispheric connectivity reflects a loss of the ability to inhibit the non-dominant hemisphere during motor task performance for older adults, which has a negative impact on performance.

Citing Articles

Differences in motor learning-related structural plasticity of layer 2/3 parvalbumin-positive interneurons of the young and aged motor cortex.

Davidson A, Mejia-Gomez H, Wooten B, Marques S, Jacobowitz M, Ugidos I Geroscience. 2024; .

PMID: 39343864 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-024-01350-6.

Task-residual effective connectivity of motor network in transient ischemic attack.

Chu T, Lee S, Jung I, Song Y, Kim H, Shin J Commun Biol. 2023; 6(1):843.

PMID: 37580508 PMC: 10425379. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05212-3.

Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior Default Mode Network (DMN) at rest.

Pico-Perez M, Magalhaes R, Esteves M, Vieira R, Castanho T, Amorim L Front Behav Neurosci. 2023; 17:1176382.

PMID: 37448789 PMC: 10336217. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382.

Manor R, Cheaha D, Kumarnsit E, Samerphob N In Vivo. 2023; 37(2):679-684.

PMID: 36881073 PMC: 10026631. DOI: 10.21873/invivo.13128.

Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Amplifies the Effects of Aging on Decrements in Grip Strength and Its Functional Neural Underpinnings.

Dillon K, Goodman Z, Kaur S, Levin B, McIntosh R J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2023; 78(6):882-889.

PMID: 36757160 PMC: 10235193. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glad048.

References

Netz J . Asymmetry in transcallosal inhibition. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol Suppl. 1999; 51:137-44. View

Cabeza R . Cognitive neuroscience of aging: contributions of functional neuroimaging. Scand J Psychol. 2001; 42(3):277-86. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9450.00237. View

Head D, Buckner R, Shimony J, Williams L, Akbudak E, Conturo T . Differential vulnerability of anterior white matter in nondemented aging with minimal acceleration in dementia of the Alzheimer type: evidence from diffusion tensor imaging. Cereb Cortex. 2004; 14(4):410-23. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhh003. View

Sohn Y, Jung H, Kaelin-Lang A, Hallett M . Excitability of the ipsilateral motor cortex during phasic voluntary hand movement. Exp Brain Res. 2003; 148(2):176-85. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-002-1292-5. View

Chen R . Interactions between inhibitory and excitatory circuits in the human motor cortex. Exp Brain Res. 2003; 154(1):1-10. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-003-1684-1. View

Murase N, Duque J, Mazzocchio R, Cohen L . Influence of interhemispheric interactions on motor function in chronic stroke. Ann Neurol. 2004; 55(3):400-9. DOI: 10.1002/ana.10848. View

Fox M, Raichle M . Spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity observed with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2007; 8(9):700-11. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2201. View

Liepert J, Classen J, Cohen L, Hallett M . Task-dependent changes of intracortical inhibition. Exp Brain Res. 1998; 118(3):421-6. DOI: 10.1007/s002210050296. View

Verstynen T, Diedrichsen J, Albert N, Aparicio P, Ivry R . Ipsilateral motor cortex activity during unimanual hand movements relates to task complexity. J Neurophysiol. 2004; 93(3):1209-22. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00720.2004. View

10.

Ward N, Frackowiak R . Age-related changes in the neural correlates of motor performance. Brain. 2003; 126(Pt 4):873-88. PMC: 3717766. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awg071. View

11.

Dittmar M . Functional and postural lateral preferences in humans: interrelations and life-span age differences. Hum Biol. 2002; 74(4):569-85. DOI: 10.1353/hub.2002.0040. View

12.

Paxton J, Barch D, Racine C, Braver T . Cognitive control, goal maintenance, and prefrontal function in healthy aging. Cereb Cortex. 2007; 18(5):1010-28. PMC: 2904686. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhm135. View

13.

Mattay V, Fera F, Tessitore A, Hariri A, Das S, Callicott J . Neurophysiological correlates of age-related changes in human motor function. Neurology. 2002; 58(4):630-5. DOI: 10.1212/wnl.58.4.630. View

14.

Vercauteren K, Pleysier T, Van Belle L, Swinnen S, Wenderoth N . Unimanual muscle activation increases interhemispheric inhibition from the active to the resting hemisphere. Neurosci Lett. 2008; 445(3):209-13. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2008.09.013. View

15.

Folstein M, Folstein S, McHugh P . "Mini-mental state". A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res. 1975; 12(3):189-98. DOI: 10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6. View

16.

Rogers B, Morgan V, Newton A, Gore J . Assessing functional connectivity in the human brain by fMRI. Magn Reson Imaging. 2007; 25(10):1347-57. PMC: 2169499. DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2007.03.007. View

17.

Vernooij M, de Groot M, van der Lugt A, Ikram M, Krestin G, Hofman A . White matter atrophy and lesion formation explain the loss of structural integrity of white matter in aging. Neuroimage. 2008; 43(3):470-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.07.052. View

18.

Li S, Lindenberger U, Sikstrom S . Aging cognition: from neuromodulation to representation. Trends Cogn Sci. 2001; 5(11):479-486. DOI: 10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01769-1. View

19.

Nudo R, Milliken G, Jenkins W, Merzenich M . Use-dependent alterations of movement representations in primary motor cortex of adult squirrel monkeys. J Neurosci. 1996; 16(2):785-807. PMC: 6578638. View

20.

Heuninckx S, Wenderoth N, Debaere F, Peeters R, Swinnen S . Neural basis of aging: the penetration of cognition into action control. J Neurosci. 2005; 25(29):6787-96. PMC: 6725362. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1263-05.2005. View