Neuroimaging of Age-Related Changes in Language

与年龄相关的语言变化的神经影像学

• 批准号: 8961001
• 负责人: Michele T Diaz
• 金额: $ 26.47万
• 依托单位: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2016-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8961001
• 关键词: Accounting; Adult; Affect; Age; Aging; Architecture; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Preservation; Brain; Brain region; Categories; Clinical; Cognitive; Cognitive deficits; Comprehension; Data; Development; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Disease; Dorsal; Elderly; Exhibits; Financial compensation; Foundations; Frequencies; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Generations; Goals; Health; Impaired cognition; Impairment; Inferior; Inferior frontal gyrus; Insula of Reil; Judgment; Knowledge; Language; Lead; Left; Link; Maintenance; Measures; Methodology; Motor; Names; Neighborhoods; Pathway interactions; Patients; Pattern; Performance; Process; Production; Public Health; Recruitment Activity; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Infrastructure; Retrieval; Role; Semantic memory; Semantics; Series; Speech; Speed; Stimulus; Structure; Structure of supramarginal gyrus; System; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Vocabulary; Work; age difference; age effect; age related; aging brain; base; behavior measurement; cognitive change; forging; healthy aging; improved; indexing; insight; language comprehension; lexical; neuroimaging; normal aging; phonology; processing speed; relating to nervous system; research study; semantic processing; theories; transmission process; white matter; young adult

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adult development is often associated with the concept of physical and cognitive decline. However, semantic processes related to the meaning of words are largely preserved: vocabulary increases as we age, and semantic word associations and category membership judgments are preserved, for example. Not only does semantic memory typically remain intact during healthy aging, but the number of associations among lexical items may also increase. In addition, these abilities are maintained despite age-related changes that affect brain structure. Despite the preservation of semantic processes specific deficits in phonological processes have been observed. For example, older adults exhibit decreased speed and accuracy in naming objects and increased slips of the tongue. This pattern of aging effects on semantic and phonological processes suggests a fundamental difference in the cognitive organization of these two abilities. The Transmission Deficit Theory provides one theoretical account of these asymmetric patterns of results by proposing fundamental differences in the cognitive architecture of the semantic and phonological systems. The proposed research tests contrasting predictions of the Transmission Deficit theory and other theories for age differences in semantic and phonological processes. The overarching goal of this proposal is to use behavioral measures, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the mechanisms underlying the asymmetry in aging effects on phonological and semantic processes. While this asymmetry has been investigated behaviorally, few studies have investigated the age-related neural changes that are related to these cognitive changes. These combined methodologies will relate the underlying structural changes to functional activation and behavioral performance. The proposed experiments will characterize semantic and phonological processes in the aging brain, investigate the role of task-irrelevant information in language production and language comprehension tasks, and investigate age-related changes in transient and sustained semantic and phonological processes. This research will improve the current scientific understanding of age-related changes in language, and describe the neural factors that contribute to cognitive decline. The data will be particularly relevant to the concept of plasticity that underlies the maintenance of behavioral functions in older adults. These results will provide essential information for differentiating normal age-related changes in language from the effects of disease, forge advances in our theoretical conceptualization of age-related change in language, and provide insight into rehabilitative therapies for cognitive decline in both healthy aging and clinical patients.

描述（由申请人提供）：成人发展通常与身体和认知能力下降的概念有关。然而，与单词含义相关的语义过程在很大程度上被保留了下来：例如，随着年龄的增长，词汇量会增加，语义词联想和类别隶属判断也会保留下来。在健康的衰老过程中，不仅语义记忆通常保持完整，而且词汇项目之间的关联数量也可能增加。此外，尽管与年龄相关的变化会影响大脑结构，但这些能力仍然保持不变。尽管保留了语义过程，但已观察到语音过程中的特定缺陷。例如，老年人命名物体的速度和准确性下降，口误增加。这种老化对语义和语音过程的影响模式表明，这两种能力的认知组织存在根本差异。传递缺陷理论通过提出语义和语音系统认知结构的根本差异，为这些不对称的结果模式提供了一种理论解释。提出的研究对比了传递缺陷理论和其他理论对语义和语音过程年龄差异的预测。本研究的总体目标是利用行为测量、扩散张量成像（DTI）和功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究衰老对语音和语义过程的不对称性影响的机制。虽然这种不对称已经在行为学上进行了研究，但很少有研究调查与这些认知变化相关的与年龄相关的神经变化。这些综合方法将把潜在的结构变化与功能激活和行为表现联系起来。这些实验将描述衰老大脑的语义和语音过程，研究任务无关信息在语言产生和语言理解任务中的作用，并研究瞬态和持续语义和语音过程的年龄相关变化。这项研究将提高目前对年龄相关语言变化的科学理解，并描述导致认知能力下降的神经因素。这些数据将与可塑性的概念特别相关，可塑性是老年人行为功能维持的基础。这些结果将为区分正常年龄相关的语言变化与疾病的影响提供重要信息，在语言年龄相关变化的理论概念化方面取得进展，并为健康老年人和临床患者认知衰退的康复治疗提供见解。