Age- and gender-related dispersion of brain networks across the lifespan

The effects of age and gender on large-scale resting-state networks (RSNs) reflecting within- and between-network connectivity in the healthy brain remain unclear. This study investigated how age and gender influence the brain network roles and topological properties underlying the ageing process. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:GeroScience 2024-02, Vol.46 (1), p.1303-1318
Main Authors: Wang, Qing, Qi, Lingyu, He, Cancan, Feng, Haixia, Xie, Chunming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aging
Alzheimer Disease - diagnostic imaging
Alzheimer's disease
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brain - diagnostic imaging
Brain Mapping
Cell Biology
Cognitive ability
Dementia disorders
Female
Gender
Geriatrics/Gerontology
Humans
Life Sciences
Life span
Longevity
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Molecular Medicine
Neural networks
Neurodegenerative diseases
Original
Original Article
Sensory integration
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Summary:The effects of age and gender on large-scale resting-state networks (RSNs) reflecting within- and between-network connectivity in the healthy brain remain unclear. This study investigated how age and gender influence the brain network roles and topological properties underlying the ageing process. Ten RSNs were constructed based on 998 participants from the REST-meta-MDD cohort. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to examine the independent and interactive influences of age and gender on large-scale RSNs and their topological properties. A support vector regression model integrating whole-brain network features was used to predict brain age across the lifespan and cognitive decline in an Alzheimer’s disease spectrum (ADS) sample. Differential effects of age and gender on brain network roles were demonstrated across the lifespan. Specifically, cingulo-opercular, auditory, and visual (VIS) networks showed more incohesive features reflected by decreased intra-network connectivity with ageing. Further, females displayed distinctive brain network trajectory patterns in middle-early age, showing enhanced network connectivity within the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and salience network (SAN) and weakened network connectivity between the FPN-somatomotor, FPN-VIS, and SAN-VIS networks. Age — but not gender — induced widespread decrease in topological properties of brain networks. Importantly, these differential network features predicted brain age and cognitive impairment in the ADS sample. By showing that age and gender exert specific dispersion of dynamic network roles and trajectories across the lifespan, this study has expanded our understanding of age- and gender-related brain changes with ageing. Moreover, the findings may be useful for detecting early-stage dementia.
ISSN:2509-2723
2509-2715
2509-2723
DOI:10.1007/s11357-023-00900-8