Dissociable neural mechanisms of cognition and well-being in youth versus healthy aging.
Gillian GrennanPragathi Priyadharsini BalasubramaniNasim VahidiDhakshin RamanathanDilip V JesteJyoti MishraPublished in: Psychology and aging (2022)
Mental health, cognition, and their underlying neural processes in healthy aging are rarely studied simultaneously. Here, in a sample of healthy younger ( n = 62) and older ( n = 54) adults, we compared subjective mental health as well as objective global cognition across several core cognitive domains with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG). We found significantly greater symptoms of anxiety, depression, and loneliness in youth and in contrast, greater mental well-being in older adults. Yet, global performance across core cognitive domains was significantly worse in older adults. EEG-based source imaging of global cognitive task-evoked processing showed reduced suppression of activity in the anterior medial prefrontal default mode network (DMN) region in older adults relative to youth. Global cognitive performance efficiency was predicted by greater activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in younger adults and in contrast, by greater activity in right inferior frontal cortex in older adults. Furthermore, greater mental well-being in older adults related to lesser global task-evoked activity in the posterior DMN. Overall, these results suggest dissociated neural mechanisms underlying global cognition and mental well-being in youth versus healthy aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Keyphrases
- mental health
- physical activity
- functional connectivity
- working memory
- prefrontal cortex
- resting state
- sleep quality
- mild cognitive impairment
- mental illness
- white matter
- young adults
- high resolution
- depressive symptoms
- computed tomography
- emergency department
- transcranial magnetic stimulation
- high frequency
- high density