Resting-State fMRI Associated with Stop-Signal Task Performance in Healthy Middle-Aged and Elderly People

Hsing-Hao Lee, Shulan Hsieh

Several brain regions and connectivity networks may be altered as aging occurs. We are interested in investigating if resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) can also be valid as an indicator of individual differences in association with inhibition performance among aged (including middle-aged) people. Seventy-two healthy adults (40-77 years of age) were recruited. Their RS-fMRI images were acquired and analyzed via two cluster-analysis methods: local synchronization of spontaneous brain activity measured by regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) of blood oxygenation level-dependent signals. After the RS-fMRI acquisition, participants were instructed to perform a stop-signal task, in which the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) was calculated based on the horse-race model. Among participants, the ReHo/fALFF and SSRT were correlated with and without partialling-out the effect of age. The results of this study showed that, although aging may alter brain networks, the spontaneous activity of the age-related brain networks can still serve as an effective indicator of individual differences in association with inhibitory performance in healthy middle-aged and elderly people. This is the first study to use both ReHo and fALFF on the same dataset for conjunction analyses showing the relationship between stopping performance and RS-fMRI in the elderly population. The relationship may have practical clinical applications. Based on the overall results, the current study demonstrated that the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and parts of the default mode network activation were negatively correlated with SSRT, suggesting that they have crucial roles in inhibitory function. However, the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and SMA played only a small role during the resting state in association with stopping performance.