title: Changes in regional and temporal patterns of activity associated with aging during the performance of a lexical set-shifting task.
abstract: Some older individuals seem to use compensatory mechanisms to maintain high-level performance when submitted to cognitive tasks. However, whether and how these mechanisms affect fronto-striatal activity has never been explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate how aging affects brain patterns during the performance of a lexical analog of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, which has been shown to strongly depend on fronto-striatal activity. In the present study, both younger and older individuals revealed significant fronto-striatal loop activity associated with planning and execution of set-shifts, though age-related striatal activity reduction was observed. Most importantly, while the younger group showed the involvement of a "cognitive loop" during the receiving negative feedback period (which indicates that a set-shift will be required to perform the following trial) and the involvement of a "motor loop" during the matching after negative feedback period (when the set-shift must be performed), older participants showed significant activation of both loops during the matching after negative feedback period only. These findings are in agreement with the "load-shift" model postulated by Velanova et al. (Velanova K, Lustig C, Jacoby LL, Buckner RL. 2007. Evidence for frontally mediated controlled processing differences in older adults. Cereb Cortex. 17:1033-1046.) and indicate that the model is not limited to memory retrieval but also applies to executive processes relying on fronto-striatal regions.
authors.affiliation: Functional Neuroimaging Unit, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3W 1W5, Canada.
authors.forename: Ruben
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simard
authors.forename: Jean-Sebastien
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Provost
authors.forename: Oury
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Monchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult