Toshiharu Nakai1, Makoto Miyakoshi1,
Epifanio Bagarinao1, Chikako Nakai2, Kayako Matsuo3
1Functional Brain Imaging Lab, National
Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Ohbu, Aichi, Japan; 2School
of Health Sciences, Toyoshashi Sozo University, Toyohashi, Aichi; 3Psychology,
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
The
characteristics of the hemodynamic response function underlying the
age-related change was investigated to estimate its contribution to the
statistical evaluation of fMRI by using motor tasks. It was suggested that
the neuronal demanded was augmented to support cognitive processing for motor
regulation rather than motor execution itself. Augmented activation in the
elderly subjects mostly depended on the increased BOLD signal amplitude
between the initial and post-stimulus peaks. It will be recommended to
consider the potential bias induced by the non-linear dynamics of HRF to
assess the age-related change of brain activation.