Exploring Cognitive Aging Using Refernce Ability Neural Networks

使用参考能力神经网络探索认知老化

• 批准号: 9177188
• 负责人: Christian Georg Habeck
• 金额: $ 718.04万
• 依托单位: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9177188
• 关键词: Accounting; Adult; Age; Age-associated memory impairment; Aging; Alzheimer' s Disease; Alzheimer' s disease risk; Amyloid; Amyloid deposition; Behavioral; Biological Neural Networks; Brain; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Cognition; Cognitive; Cognitive aging; Core-Binding Factor; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data; Data Set; Dementia; Derivation procedure; Elderly; Episodic memory; Functional Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Grant; Hand; Health; Image; Impaired cognition; Individual; Lead; Liquid substance; Location; Longevity; Measures; Mediator of activation protein; Methods; Modeling; Multimodal Imaging; Nature; Participant; Pattern; Performance; Phase; Positron-Emission Tomography; Procedures; Process; Productivity; Quality of life; Research; Research Personnel; Rest; Risk Factors; Series; Societies; Speed; Staging; Structure; Testing; Thick; Time; Vocabulary; White Matter Hyperintensity; age difference; age effect; age related; aged; base; behavior change; brain behavior; brain volume; cognitive change; cognitive performance; cognitive task; cognitive testing; cohort; follow-up; insight; longitudinal analysis; mild cognitive impairment; neurobehavioral; neuroimaging; pre-clinical; programs; relating to nervous system; white matter

PROJECT SUMMARY: This study focus on the optimal functional and structural imaging characterization of the cognitive aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been repeatedly demonstrated that performance across the age span on large batteries of diverse cognitive tests can be parsimoniously represented by a set of four reference abilities: episodic memory, perceptual speed, fluid ability, and vocabulary. Based on these findings, it has been argued that cognitive aging research should try to understand how aging impacts performance of this small set of reference abilities than focus on specific tasks. In contrast, neuroimaging researchers typically evaluate age differences in neural activation associated with the performance of a single specific task that may or may not be fully representative of these reference abilities. We have begun to identify the latent brain networks associated with each of the four reference abilities across adulthood. While undergoing functional imaging, we tested large group of healthy adults aged 20 to 80 with a series of 12 cognitive tasks that represent the four reference abilities (3 per construct). Using unique expertise in spatial covariance and other analyses of the fMRI imaging data, we have derived preliminary versions of the latent spatial, brain-wide fMRI networks that are associated with the latent cognitive structure of the reference abilities across adulthood. Successful identification of these "reference ability neural networks" may lead to a paradigm shift in research on the neural bases of age differences in cognition by focusing on the broad and replicable aspects common to several tasks rather than the possibly idiosyncratic features of individual tasks. We now propose to follow up this group at 5 years in order to begin to delineate how expression of these networks changes with aging and with the onset of mild cognitive impairment and AD. We will use multimodal imaging to evaluate potential mediators of age and dementia-related differences in the utilization of the networks. These include change in brain volume and cortical thickness; white matter hyperintensity burden; integrity of white matter tracts; resting CBF; and the default network. Importantly, we will use PET to assess amyloid burden. The proposed study will develop a completely new and more focused imaging approach to the study of cognitive aging and preclinical AD. It has the potential to provide key insights into the nature and causes of the neural changes that underlie cognitive aging and to more accurately describe the preclinical phase of AD.

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