title: Resting-state functional connectivity in normal brain aging.
abstract: The world is aging and, as the elderly population increases, age-related cognitive decline emerges as a major concern. Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), allow the investigation of the neural bases of age-related cognitive changes in vivo. Typically, fMRI studies map brain activity while subjects perform cognitive tasks, but such paradigms are often difficult to implement on a wider basis. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has emerged as an important alternative modality of fMRI data acquisition, during which no specific task is required. Due to such simplicity and the reliability of rs-fMRI data, this modality presents increased feasibility and potential for clinical application in the future. With rs-fMRI, fluctuations in regional brain activity can be detected across separate brain regions and the patterns of intercorrelation between the functioning of these regions are measured, affording quantitative indices of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). This review article summarizes the results of recent rs-fMRI studies that have documented a variety of aging-related RSFC changes in the human brain, discusses the neurophysiological hypotheses proposed to interpret such findings, and provides an overview of the future, highly promising perspectives in this field.
authors: Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroimaging (LIM-21), Department and Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. kobuti@yahoo.com
authors: Luiz Kobuti
authors: LK
authors: Ferreira
authors: Geraldo F
authors: GF
authors: Busatto
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology