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The Aging Brain and Executive Functions Revisited: Implications from Meta-Analytic and Functional-Connectivity Evidence

View ORCID ProfileMarisa K. Heckner, View ORCID ProfileEdna C. Cieslik, View ORCID ProfileSimon B. Eickhoff, View ORCID ProfileJulia A. Camilleri, View ORCID ProfileFelix Hoffstaedter, View ORCID ProfileRobert Langner
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204941
Marisa K. Heckner
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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  • For correspondence: m.heckner@fz-juelich.de r.langner@fz-juelich.de
Edna C. Cieslik
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Simon B. Eickhoff
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Julia A. Camilleri
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Felix Hoffstaedter
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Robert Langner
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
2Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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  • For correspondence: m.heckner@fz-juelich.de r.langner@fz-juelich.de
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Abstract

Healthy aging is associated with changes in cognitive performance including executive functions (EFs) and their associated brain activation patterns. However, it has remained unclear which EF-related brain regions are affected consistently, because the results of pertinent neuroimaging studies and earlier meta-analyses vary considerably. We, therefore, conducted new rigorous meta-analyses of published age differences in EF-related brain activity. Out of a larger set of regions associated with EFs, only left inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and left anterior cuneus/precuneus (aC/PrC) were found to show consistent age differences. To further characterize these two age-sensitive regions, we performed seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RS-FC) analyses using fMRI data from a large adult sample with a wide age range. We also assessed associations of the two regions’ whole-brain RS-FC patterns with age and EF performance. Although functional profiling and RS-FC analyses point towards a domain-general role of left IFJ in EFs, the pattern of individual study contributions to the meta-analytic results suggests process-specific modulations by age. Our analyses further indicate that left aC/PrC is recruited differently by older (compared to younger) adults during EF tasks, potentially reflecting inefficiencies in switching the attentional focus. Overall, our findings question earlier meta-analytic results and suggest a larger heterogeneity of age-related differences in brain activity associated with EFs. Hence, they encourage future research that pays greater attention to replicability, investigates age-related differences in deactivation, and focuses on more narrowly defined EF subprocesses, combining multiple behavioral assessments with multi-modal imaging.

Highlights - Healthy aging is linked to deterioration in executive functions (EFs)

- ALE meta-analyses examined consistent age differences in brain activity linked to EFs

- In a larger set of EF regions, only left IFJ and (pre)cuneus were sensitive to age

- Advanced age was linked to weaker functional coupling within EF-related networks

- Our findings question earlier meta-analytic findings

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted July 17, 2020.
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The Aging Brain and Executive Functions Revisited: Implications from Meta-Analytic and Functional-Connectivity Evidence
Marisa K. Heckner, Edna C. Cieslik, Simon B. Eickhoff, Julia A. Camilleri, Felix Hoffstaedter, Robert Langner
bioRxiv 2020.07.15.204941; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204941
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The Aging Brain and Executive Functions Revisited: Implications from Meta-Analytic and Functional-Connectivity Evidence
Marisa K. Heckner, Edna C. Cieslik, Simon B. Eickhoff, Julia A. Camilleri, Felix Hoffstaedter, Robert Langner
bioRxiv 2020.07.15.204941; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204941

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