scholarly journals Musical experience relates to functional connectivity in older adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 714-714
Author(s):  
Meishan Ai ◽  
Timothy Morris ◽  
Laura Chaddock-Heyman ◽  
Psyche Loui ◽  
Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Grey Matter Volume ◽  
Precentral Gyrus ◽  
Age Related

Abstract Previous studies have shown that engaging in musical activities throughout the lifespan may buffer age-related decline in auditory and motor function, as well as in general cognitive function. MRI studies have demonstrated that individuals with musical training and experience exhibited greater grey matter volume and functional connectivity in extensive brain regions, especially in auditory and motor systems, compared to matched controls with no particular musical training or experience. Therefore, musical activity is a potential protective factor for brain health across lifespan. However, how lifespan musical experience shapes functional connectivity in older adults is still unknown. The current analysis investigated whether general musical experience (Goldsmith Music Sophistication Index) is associated with functional connectivity in older adults (age=65.7±4.4, n=69), focusing on seed regions in primary motor areas (bilateral precentral gyrus) and primary auditory regions (bilateral anterior/posterior superior temporal gyrus) and their functional connectivity towards other areas throughout the whole brain. We found that older adults with more musical experience showed greater functional connectivity between anterior superior temporal gyrus and insula (R2=0.10, p=0.01), and between posterior superior temporal gyrus and cerebellum (R2=0.08, p=0.02). However, musical experience and music-related functional connectivity was not significantly correlated with general cognitive functions in our sample. Overall, our findings suggest that older adults with more musical experience might be more efficient in some aspects of auditory processing and auditory-motor skills, but this may not transfer towards domain-general cognitive tests. Our results support the notion that even non-professional engagement in musical experiences may afford benefits to the aging brain.

scholarly journals Musical experience partially counteracts temporal speech processing deficits in mild cognitive impairment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin N. Price ◽  
Gavin M. Bidelman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Age Related

ABSTRACTMild cognitive impairment (MCI) commonly impacts older adults resulting in more rapid cognitive and behavioral declines than typical aging. Individuals with MCI can exhibit impaired receptive speech abilities that may reflect neurophysiological changes in auditory-sensory processing prior to usual cognitive deficits. Benefits from current interventions targeting communication difficulties in MCI are limited. Yet, neuroplasticity associated with musical experience has been implicated in improving neural representations of speech and offsetting age-related declines in perception. Here, we asked whether these experience-dependent effects of musicianship might extend to aberrant aging and offer some degree of cognitive protection against MCI. During a vowel categorization task, we recorded single-channel EEGs in older adults with putative MCI to evaluate speech encoding across subcortical and cortical levels of the auditory system. Critically, listeners varied in their duration of formal musical training experience (0-21 years). Older musicians exhibited sharpened temporal precision in auditory cortical responses suggesting musical experience produces more efficient processing of acoustic features by offsetting age-related neural delays. Additionally, we found robustness of brainstem responses predicted severity of cognitive decline suggesting early speech representations are sensitive to pre-clinical stages of cognitive impairment. Our preliminary results extend prior studies by demonstrating positive benefits of musical experience in older adults with emergent cognitive impairments.

scholarly journals Comparing the Protective Value of Human and Pet Social Support on Well-Being of Older Adults During COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 936-936
Author(s):  
Juliet Sobering ◽  
Lisa Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Behavioral Activation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Media Reports

Abstract Older adults are vulnerable to particular risk factors that contribute to lower well-being and poorer functioning. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of social support has been highlighted in media reports because of its well-known beneficial effects on overall well-being. However, as adults age, social networks, contacts, and activities naturally decrease. These age-related losses are often difficult, if not impossible, to replace. Pets have recently been recognized as a valuable source of social support for many older adults, providing both physical and psychological benefits through mutual connection and behavioral activation. Previous studies have examined how human social support or pet social support enhance older adults’ well-being (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, relationships, accomplishment, and meaning). However, there is a gap in our scientific knowledge as previous research has not evaluated if pet social support can serve as a protective factor in the absence of adequate human social support. Current analyses, with 141 older adult participants, suggests that pet owners with a positive attachment to their pet experience higher well-being as pets serve as a coping resource that protects against common life stressors. Similar to human social support, pet social support appears to be a protective factor that also promotes and fosters a sense of well-being in older adults. Support in late life is especially important for families and agencies to be attuned to, especially during a global pandemic.

scholarly journals Advanced Aging Enhances the Positivity Effect in Memory: Due to Cognitive Control or Age-Related Decline in Emotional Processing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiko Sakaki ◽  
Jasmine A. L. Raw ◽  
Jamie Findlay ◽  
Mariel Thottam
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Conditioned Responses

Older adults typically remember more positive than negative information compared to their younger counterparts; a phenomenon referred to as the ‘positivity effect.’ According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), the positivity effect derives from the age-related motivational shift towards attaining emotionally meaningful goals which become more important as the perception of future time becomes more limited. Cognitive control mechanisms are critical in achieving such goals and therefore SST predicts that the positivity effect is associated with preserved cognitive control mechanisms in older adults. In contrast, the aging-brain model suggests that the positivity effect is driven by an age-related decline in the amygdala which is responsible for emotional processing and emotional learning. The aim of the current research was to address whether the age-related positivity effect is associated with cognitive control or impaired emotional processing associated with aging. We included older old adults, younger old adults and younger adults and tested their memory for emotional stimuli, cognitive control and amygdala-dependent fear conditioned responses. Consistent with prior research, older adults, relative to younger adults, demonstrate better memory for positive over negative images. We further found that within a group of older adults, the positivity effect increases as a function of age, such that older old adults demonstrated a greater positivity effect compared to younger older adults. Furthermore, the positivity effect in older old adults was associated with preserved cognitive control, supporting the prediction of SST. Contrary to the prediction of the aging-brain model, participants across all groups demonstrated similar enhanced skin conductance responses to fear conditioned stimuli – responses known to rely on the amygdala. Our results support SST and suggest that the positivity effect in older adults is achieved by the preserved cognitive control mechanisms and is not a reflection of the impaired emotional function associated with age.

A Review and Reappraisal of the Default Network in Normal Aging and Dementia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna ◽  
Matthew D. Grilli ◽  
Muireann Irish
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Brain Aging ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Normal Aging ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Default Network ◽  
Pathological Aging ◽  
Age Related

The brain’s default network (DN) has received considerable interest in the context of so-called “normal” and pathological aging. Findings have generally been couched in support of a pessimistic view of brain aging, marked by substantial loss of structural brain integrity accompanied by a host of impairments in brain and cognitive function. A critical look at the literature, however, reveals that the standard loss of integrity, loss of function (LILF) view in normal aging may not necessarily hold with respect to the DN and the internally guided functions it supports. Many internally guided processes subserved by the DN are preserved or enhanced in cognitively healthy older adults. Moreover, differences in motivational, contextual, and physiological factors between young and older adults likely influence the extant neuroimaging and cognitive findings. Accordingly, normal aging can be viewed as a series of possibly adaptive cognitive and DN-related alterations that bolster cognitive function and promote socioemotional well-being and stability in a stage of life noted for change. On the other hand, the available evidence reveals strong support for the LILF view of the DN in neurodegenerative disorders, whereby syndromes such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and semantic dementia (SD), characterized by progressive atrophy to distinct DN subsystems, display distinct aberrations in autobiographical and semantic cognition. Taken together, these findings call for more naturalistic, age-appropriate, and longitudinal paradigms when investigating neurocognitive changes in aging and to adequately assess and control for differences in non-neural factors that may obscure “true” effects of normal and pathological aging. A shift in the framework with which age-related alterations in internally guided cognition are interpreted may shed important light on the neurocognitive mechanisms differentiating healthy and pathological aging, leading to a more complete picture of the aging brain in all its complexity.

scholarly journals Age-related changes in resting-state functional connectivity in older adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 1544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Farras-Permanyer ◽  
Núria Mancho-Fora ◽  
Marc Montalà-Flaquer ◽  
David Bartrés-Faz ◽  
Lídia Vaqué-Alcázar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Changes

scholarly journals Fronto-striatal Functional Connectivity Supports Reward-Enhanced Memory in Older Adults

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. Bowen ◽  
Jaclyn H. Ford ◽  
Cheryl L. Grady ◽  
Julia Spaniol
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
High Reward ◽  
Neural Underpinnings

AbstractBoth younger and older adults prioritize reward-associated stimuli in memory, but there has been little research on possible age differences in the neural mechanisms mediating this effect. In the current study, we examine neural activation and functional connectivity in healthy younger and older adults to test the hypothesis that older adults would engage prefrontal regions to a greater extent in the service of reward-enhanced memory. While undergoing MRI, target stimuli were presented after high or low-reward cues. The cues indicated the reward value for successfully recognizing the stimulus on a memory test 24-hours later. We replicated prior findings that both older and younger and adults had better memory for high compared to low-reward stimuli. Critically, in older, but not younger adults, this enhanced subsequent memory for high-reward items was supported by greater connectivity between the caudate and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. The findings add to the growing literature on motivation-cognition interactions in healthy aging, and provide novel evidence of an age-related shift in the neural underpinnings of reward-motivated encoding.

scholarly journals Reduced Facilitation of Parietal-Motor Functional Connections in Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elana R. Goldenkoff ◽  
Rachel N. Logue ◽  
Susan H. Brown ◽  
Michael Vesia
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Motor Planning ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Age Related

Age-related changes in cortico-cortical connectivity in the human motor network in older adults are associated with declines in hand dexterity. Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is strongly interconnected with motor areas and plays a critical role in many aspects of motor planning. Functional connectivity measures derived from dual-site transcranial magnetic stimulation (dsTMS) studies have found facilitatory inputs from PPC to ipsilateral primary motor cortex (M1) in younger adults. In this study, we investigated whether facilitatory inputs from PPC to M1 are altered by age. We used dsTMS in a conditioning-test paradigm to characterize patterns of functional connectivity between the left PPC and ipsilateral M1 and a standard pegboard test to assess skilled hand motor function in 13 young and 13 older adults. We found a PPC-M1 facilitation in young adults but not older adults. Older adults also showed a decline in motor performance compared to young adults. We conclude that the reduced PPC-M1 facilitation in older adults may be an early marker of age-related decline in the neural control of movement.

scholarly journals Music Engagement and Episodic Memory among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A National Longitudinal Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 707-707
Author(s):  
Hillary Rouse ◽  
Gizem Hueluer ◽  
Mia Torres ◽  
Yan Du ◽  
Kyaien Conner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Pharmacological Intervention ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Age Related

Abstract Recent research suggests that engagement with particular activities, such as music, can influence age-related changes in episodic memory. However, it is unclear whether, and to what, extent music engagement is associated with the trajectory of episodic memory. The objective of this study is to examine how passive (i.e., listening to music) and/or active (i.e., singing or playing an instrument) music engagement influences episodic memory over a period of 12 years. Secondary data analysis of a sample (N=5095) of cognitively healthy adults from the Health and Retirement Study were used for this study. Linear mixed effects models were used to examine the independent effect of different levels of music engagement (i.e., low, medium, and high) on changes in performance on episodic memory tasks, while controlling for confounding factors. Compared to those with low engagement (i.e., neither listening nor singing/ playing an instrument), respondents who reported being engaged at the medium (i.e., either listening or singing/ playing an instrument) or high (i.e., both listening and singing/ playing an instrument) level performed 0.24 (p=0.003) and 0.52 (p<0.001) points better, respectively. We found evidence that music engagement attenuated the decline in episodic memory. The findings suggest that music engagement may be a protective factor against aged-related decline in episodic memory. Therefore, music engagement may offer a promising non-pharmacological intervention for dementia risk mitigation among community-living middle-aged and older adults. Future research should examine whether interventions to increase music engagement can affect the trajectories of aged-related decline in cognition in this large and growing population.

Prefrontal Engagement and Reduced Default Network Suppression Co-occur and Are Dynamically Coupled in Older Adults: The Default–Executive Coupling Hypothesis of Aging

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 2462-2476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary R. Turner ◽  
R. Nathan Spreng
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Default Network ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Neurocognitive Aging

Reduced executive control is a hallmark of neurocognitive aging. Poor modulation of lateral pFC activity in the context of increasing task challenge in old adults and a “failure to deactivate” the default network during cognitive control tasks have been observed. Whether these two patterns represent discrete mechanisms of neurocognitive aging or interact into older adulthood remains unknown. We examined whether altered pFC and default network dynamics co-occur during goal-directed planning over increasing levels of difficulty during performance on the Tower of London task. We used fMRI to investigate task- and age-related changes in brain activation and functional connectivity across four levels of task challenge. Frontoparietal executive control regions were activated and default network regions were suppressed during planning relative to counting performance in both groups. Older adults, unlike young, failed to modulate brain activity in executive control and default regions as planning demands increased. Critically, functional connectivity analyses revealed bilateral dorsolateral pFC coupling in young adults and dorsolateral pFC to default coupling in older adults with increased planning complexity. We propose a default–executive coupling hypothesis of aging. First, this hypothesis suggests that failure to modulate control and default network activity in response to increasing task challenge are linked in older adulthood. Second, functional brain changes involve greater coupling of lateral pFC and the default network as cognitive control demands increase in older adults. We speculate that these changes reflect an adaptive shift in cognitive approach as older adults come to rely more upon stored representations to support goal-directed task performance.

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