Thalamic functional connectivity and its association with behavioral performance in older age.

Although older adults exhibited poorer visual-spatial memory and slower reaction times compared to younger adults, "good" and "poorer" older performers exhibited different patterns of thalamo-cortical and thalamo-hippocampal FC. These results highlight the potential role of thalamic connectivity in supporting reaction times and memory in aging. Furthermore, these results highlight the importance of including the thalamus in studies of aging to fully understand how brain changes with age may be associated with behavior.