Kwun Kei Ng1, June C. Lo1, Michael W.L. Chee1, and Juan Zhou1,2
1Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore, 2Clinical Imaging Research Centre, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
The
effects of age on functional connectivity (FC) of intrinsic connectivity
networks (ICNs) have largely been derived from cross sectional studies. Far
less is known about longitudinal changes in FC and how they relate to ageing-related
cognitive decline. We found progressive loss of functional specialization with
ageing evidenced by a decline in intra-network FC within the executive control
(ECN) and default mode networks (DMN). In contrast, longitudinal change in FC
between ECN and DMN followed a u-shaped trajectory whereby functional
segregation between these two networks initially increased over time and later decreased
as participants aged. The rate of loss in ECN-DMN functional segregation was
associated with decline in processing speed.
