The role of white matter microstructure in age-related deficits in task-switching
Todd
A.
Jolly1, 2, 3,
Pat
T.
Michie1, 2, 3,
William
R.
Fulham1, 2,
Patrick
S.
Cooper1, 2,
Christopher
R.
Levi2, 3, 4,
Mark
W.
Parsons2, 3, 4,
Rhoshel
K.
Lenroot5 and
Frini
Karayanidis1, 2, 3*
-
1
University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science and IT, Australia
-
2
University of Newcastle, Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health Research, Australia
-
3
Hunter Medical Research Institute, Australia
-
4
University of Newcastle, School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, Australia
-
5
University of New South Wales, Neurosciences Research Australia, Australia
Background: It has been well established that many aspects of cognitive functioning decline with age, such as memory, processing speed and various executive functions. Task-switching performance also declines with age, and this decline is more apparent on trials that require using external cues to guide behaviour when there is a high degree of ambiguity present in the target set. This age-related decline in task-switching performance may be due to changes to the white matter microstructure that occur with age. However, the possible mediating role that white matter microstructure has on this age-related decline has yet to be explicitly tested. In the present study, we examined whether age-related decline in task switching performance can be explained by microstructural disruption within cerebral white matter.
Method: A sample of 70 cognitively intact individuals (aged 43-87) completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, as well as a cued-trials task-switching paradigm with event-related potentials recorded to examine both preparatory (cue-target interval 1000ms) and target-driven control processes. MRI scanning included T1 structural, T2 weighted FLAIR and diffusion-weighted imaging sequences. Measures of microstructural white matter changes were calculated using DTI analyses on the diffusion-weighted imaging sequence.
Results: Task-switching performance decreased as a function of both age and increased white matter microstructural disruption. However, the relationship between age and task-switching performance was removed after controlling for variance associated with white matter microstructure. In contrast, the relationship between white matter microstructure and task-switching performance remained significant even after controlling for the variance associated with age alone.
Discussion: These findings suggest that age-related decline in task-switching performance is mediated by changes in white matter microstructure. We will further examine whether the relationship between age-related decline in task-switching performance and white matter microstructure is specific to fronto-parietal and fronto-basal ganglia pathways associated with cognitive control.
Keywords:
Diffusion Tensor Imaging,
cognitive control,
white matter microstructure,
task-switching,
cognitive aging
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Executive Processes
Citation:
Jolly
TA,
Michie
PT,
Fulham
WR,
Cooper
PS,
Levi
CR,
Parsons
MW,
Lenroot
RK and
Karayanidis
F
(2013). The role of white matter microstructure in age-related deficits in task-switching.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00019
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Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Frini Karayanidis, University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science and IT, Newcastle, Australia, Frini.Karayanidis@newcastle.edu.au