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Resting‐state functional connectivity of basal forebrain is associated with training gains in normal aging
Author(s) -
Faraza Sofia,
Dyrba Martin,
Wolf Dominik,
Fischer Florian U,
Fellgiebel Andreas,
Teipel Stefan J
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.056154
Subject(s) - alertness , basal forebrain , cognitive training , cognition , psychology , neuropsychology , functional magnetic resonance imaging , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , stimulus (psychology) , resting state fmri , neuroscience , audiology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , cognitive psychology , medicine , cholinergic , psychiatry
Background Cognitive training can improve cognitive performance in healthy older adults. The effectiveness of a training is considered as a maintenance of training skills outside of a training context. Research data indicate an association between cognitive decline and changes of brain function in normal aging. A better understanding of the brain mechanisms that can enhance or preserve cognitive training skills could help identifying healthy older adults who will benefit from cognitive interventions. The cholinergic basal forebrain is involved in several aspects of cognition including attention. In our study, we aimed to assess the association of functional connectivity of the basal forebrain with maintained training skills. Method A sample of 60 healthy older adults (mean age: 68 years) underwent a 4‐week multi‐modal cognitive training and neuropsychological assessments before and after the training. A second follow‐up assessment was applied 12 weeks after the training. Baseline resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to derive the global functional connectivity of the anterior‐medial and posterior‐lateral compartments of the basal forebrain. We focused on attention capacities using the Test battery for Attention Performance (TAP), which assesses a variety of attentional aspects, including alertness. Maintenance of training gains was defined as higher improvement in the alertness tasks after 12 weeks than a no‐training control group. Result A high functional connectivity of anterior basal forebrain was a significantly associated with maintenance of training gains in the phasic arousal tasks, i.e. the reaction time in response to a critical stimulus preceded by a cue stimulus presented as a warning tone. There was no significant association for the posterior basal forebrain. Conclusion Functional activation patterns of basal forebrain contribute to maintenance of training gains of alertness tasks.