title: Frontoparietal activation during visual conjunction search: Effects of bottom-up guidance and adult age.
abstract: We conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a visual search paradigm to test the hypothesis that aging is associated with increased frontoparietal involvement in both target detection and bottom-up attentional guidance (featural salience). Participants were 68 healthy adults, distributed continuously across 19 to 78 years of age. Frontoparietal regions of interest (ROIs) were defined from resting-state scans obtained prior to task-related fMRI. The search target was defined by a conjunction of color and orientation. Each display contained one item that was larger than the others (i.e., a size singleton) but was not informative regarding target identity. Analyses of search reaction time (RT) indicated that bottom-up attentional guidance from the size singleton (when coincident with the target) was relatively constant as a function of age. Frontoparietal fMRI activation related to target detection was constant as a function of age, as was the reduction in activation associated with salient targets. However, for individuals 35 years of age and older, engagement of the left frontal eye field (FEF) in bottom-up guidance was more prominent than for younger individuals. Further, the age-related differences in left FEF activation were a consequence of decreasing resting-state functional connectivity in visual sensory regions. These findings indicate that age-related compensatory effects may be expressed in the relation between activation and behavior, rather than in the magnitude of activation, and that relevant changes in the activation-RT relation may begin at a relatively early point in adulthood. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2128-2149, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: David J
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2815-6552
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Catherine W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Tallman
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Boylan
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hoagey
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Sally B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Cocjin
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Micah A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Ying-Hui
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Guy G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.|Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Nan-Kuei
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Lauren E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Packard
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Rachel E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Siciliano
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Zachary A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Monge
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, and Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Michele T
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7263-1694
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Diaz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: aging; attention; brain imaging; fMRI; perception; plasticity; reaction time