FUNCTIONAL BRAIN IMAGING IN NORMAL AGING

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This study hypothesizes the following: 1) Changes in dynamic neuronal network properties occur in the aging brain that affect sensory and cognitive processing and 2) these changes can be quantified by Magnetoencephalography (MEG). In general, although sensory processing occurs in dedicated units of the brain, the cognitive binding process, altered in a time-dependent manner by the aging process, will result in modifications of sensory-motor integration. The aims are the following: 1) To image and analyze the temporal reset of the auditory-evoked thalamo-cortical brain activity. 2) To investigate whether correlations exist between psychophysical somatosensory thresholds and specific patterns of neural activity in the primary sensory cortex in normal and aging individuals. 3) To image and analyze the temporal reset of visual-evoked thalamo-cortical brain activity. 4) To analyze language perception processing and its changes during aging. 165 individuals (in groups of 15 per 5-year age categories from 25-80) will be recruited and subjected to neuropsychological testing and spontaneous and sensory-evoked MEG measurements to detect reset and binding parameters from stimuli relating to the 4 aims. MEG findings will be overlaid on MRI/MRS images to reveal underlying neurobiologic correlates of sensory and cognitive decline in normal aging. In addition, metric and spectral parameters will be used to define similarity scores between subjects, as well as individual scores. The individual scores can be correlated with neuropsychologic assessments. The clinical and cognitive assessments will be repeated at 2-year intervals. Patient recruitment will include an existing population of patients followed by the NIA-supported Alzheimer's Disease Center at NYU. The Dept. of Psychiatry will also provide well-characterized, healthy, cognitively normal subjects. This is a bold attempt to characterize the effects of aging on neuronal network physiology, particularly as it relates to processing input stimuli in short bursts of time. The use of MEG and MRI/MRS allows for information about spatial processing and neuronal function. A Planckian quantal approach to sensory processing was developed by the investigators. This protocol has been initiated and recruitment continues.