fMRI Studies of Age-related Changes in Executive Processing

执行过程中与年龄相关的变化的功能磁共振成像研究

• 批准号: 8431820
• 负责人: Marcia K. Johnson
• 金额: $ 39.32万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8431820
• 关键词: Affect; Age-associated memory impairment; Aging; Agreement; Animals; Area; Biological Markers; Brain; Brain Injuries; Brain region; Cognition; Cognitive; Complex; Comprehension; Decision Making; Elderly; Event; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Group Processes; Impaired cognition; Individual; Individual Differences; Laboratories; Lesion; Maps; Measures; Memory; Metabolic; Neurons; Neuropsychological Tests; Patients; Pattern; Perception; Performance; Personal Satisfaction; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Prefrontal Cortex; Problem Solving; Process; Productivity; Public Health; Reporting; Research Personnel; Role; Short-Term Memory; Social Interaction; Specific qualifier value; Taxonomy; Treatment Efficacy; Work; age related; aging population; base; cognitive function; executive function; experience; frontal lobe; interest; long term memory; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neuropathology; neuropsychological; normal aging; physical conditioning; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; therapy development; young adult

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Normal aging is accompanied by reduced cognitive functioning that can have a broad impact on older adults' lives, including work, social interactions, and managing daily tasks such as finances. Perhaps one of the most common subjective complaints is problems with working memory and long term memory. A major factor contributing to such age-related decline is impaired functioning of the executive processes by which information is maintained and manipulated during higher-order cognitive activities such as comprehension, memory, decision-making and problem-solving. There is accumulating evidence converging on the critical role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the executive processes involved in such cognitive activities, and there is increasing evidence that PFC shows functional organization with respect to the processes engaged. There is also evidence that a primary role of PFC is to modulate activity in other brain regions, including those involved in initial perception and the encoding of enduring representations of experienced events. Aging disproportionately affects the PFC, compared to other brain regions, and structural, functional, and metabolic changes have been associated with cognitive dysfunction. There are a growing number of reports of positive correlations between older adults' cognitive performance and scores on cognitive tasks sensitive to executive function, and fMRI studies showing age-related differences in PFC and posterior area activity during cognitive tasks, including tasks assessing executive function. A common goal of investigators working on executive function is to characterize the functional organization of PFC with respect to individual processes, groups of related functions, and/or an area's role in modulating other areas during tasks requiring control. Yet, in spite of increasing interest in these topics, there is still little agreement on a single workable taxonomy of executive functions, how specific regions of frontal cortex map onto specific executive processes, or the dynamic networks that support them. One possible reason is that many of the laboratory tasks traditionally used to tap executive functions are complex---involving multiple component executive processes and subject to potential strategy differences across groups. The proposed project will thus use simple tasks to advance four broad aims: (1) To further specify the component cognitive processes involved in executive function; (2) To identify their neural bases, including functional networks between brain regions; (3) To assess how component processes and underlying neural activity are affected by aging; (4) To examine how individual differences in performance on measures of executive function relate to differences in patterns of brain activity (and connectivity) related to component executive processes.

描述(申请人提供)：正常衰老伴随着认知功能的降低，这可能会对老年人的生活产生广泛的影响，包括工作、社交和管理日常事务，如财务。也许最常见的主观抱怨之一是工作记忆和长期记忆的问题。造成这种年龄相关性下降的一个主要因素是执行过程的功能受损，在理解、记忆、决策和解决问题等高级认知活动中，通过执行过程来维持和操纵信息。越来越多的证据集中在前额叶皮质(PFC)在参与这类认知活动的执行过程中的关键作用上，越来越多的证据表明PFC显示出与所参与的过程相关的功能组织。也有证据表明，PFC的主要作用是调节大脑其他区域的活动，包括参与初始感知和编码经验性事件的持久表征的那些区域。与其他大脑区域相比，衰老对PFC的影响不成比例，结构、功能和代谢变化与认知功能障碍有关。越来越多的报告表明，老年人的认知表现与对执行功能敏感的认知任务的分数呈正相关，fMRI研究显示，认知任务(包括评估执行功能的任务)中PFC和后脑区活动的年龄相关差异。致力于执行功能的研究人员的一个共同目标是描述PFC在需要控制的任务期间相对于单个过程、相关功能组和/或区域在调节其他区域中的角色的功能组织的特征。然而，尽管人们对这些话题越来越感兴趣，但对于执行功能的单一可行分类、额叶皮质的特定区域如何映射到特定的执行过程，或者支持它们的动态网络，仍然几乎没有达成一致。一个可能的原因是，许多传统上用于挖掘执行功能的实验室任务是复杂的-涉及多个组成部分的执行过程，并受到不同组之间潜在战略差异的影响。因此，拟议的项目将使用简单的任务来推进四个广泛的目标：(1)进一步明确涉及执行功能的组成部分认知过程；(2)确定它们的神经基础，包括大脑区域之间的功能网络；(3)评估组成过程和潜在的神经活动如何受到年龄的影响；(4)研究个体在执行功能测量上的表现差异如何与与组成执行功能相关的大脑活动(和连接)模式的差异有关。