title: Marginal neurofunctional changes in high-performing older adults in a verbal fluency task.
abstract: The maintenance of a high level of performance in aging has often been associated with changes in cerebral activations patterns for various cognitive components. However, relatively few studies have investigated this phenomenon in light of lexical speech production abilities, which have not been systematically found to benefit from neurofunctional reorganization during verbal fluency tasks. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess overt self-paced semantic and orthographic verbal fluency tasks performed by healthy younger and older adults within a mixed block/event-related fMRI design. Behavioral results indicated similarly high levels of performance between tasks and age groups, while whole brain analysis revealed significant task-related differences in patterns of brain activity, but no significant effect of age or task-by-age interaction across the speech conditions. Only local activity differences were found between age groups. These marginal neurofunctional changes in high-performing older adults are discussed in terms of task demands.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 ave Vincent-d'Indy, Montréal, Québec H2V-2S9, Canada; Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, 4545 Ch. Queen-Mary, Montréal, Québec H3W-1W4, Canada.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Marsolais
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 ave Vincent-d'Indy, Montréal, Québec H2V-2S9, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, pavillon Roger-Gaudry, 2900, boul. Édouard-Montpetit, Montréal, Québec H3T-1J4, Canada.
authors.forename: Ikram
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Methqal
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 ave Vincent-d'Indy, Montréal, Québec H2V-2S9, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, pavillon Roger-Gaudry, 2900, boul. Édouard-Montpetit, Montréal, Québec H3T-1J4, Canada. Electronic address: yves.joanette@umontreal.ca.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Joanette
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Communication abilities; Neurofunctional reorganization; Verbal fluency; fMRI