认知与脑老化

Cognition and brain functional aging

我国是世界上老年人口数目最多的国家,同时也是全世界人口老龄化发展速度最快的国家之一。老龄化过程可伴随一系列脑结构和功能变化,导致老年人加工速度、工作记忆、长时记忆和执行能力等认知功能下降。基于fMRI的研究表明,随着年龄的增长,老年人在脑区激活、自发活动和功能连接上均呈现一定的老龄化效应。已有的研究多建立在老年人和年轻人的对比基础上,较少系统地观察脑老化曲线,而绘制脑老化曲线将有助于了解脑功能连接组随年龄变化之规律,并可评价脑功能退化程度及早期识别异常脑老化。

China has the largest population of elderly adults. Meanwhile, it is one of the countries showing fastest aging speed in the world. Aging processing is always companied with a series of brain structural and functional changes, which result in the decline of processing speed, working memory, long- term memory and executive function, etc. The studies based on functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） found certain aging effects on brain function activation, spontaneous activity and functional connectivity in old people. However, few studies have explored the brain functional curve during the aging process while most previous studies explored the differences in the brain function between young people and old people. Delineation of the human brain functional aging curve will promote the understanding of brain aging mechanisms and support the normal aging monitoring and early detection of abnormal aging changes.