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Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioural decline

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Abstract

Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in healthy ageing. However, the relationship between ageing, bimanual performance, and grey matter loss remains unclear, particularly across the whole adult lifespan. Therefore, participants (N = 93, range 20–80 years) performed a complex Bimanual Tracking Task, and structural brain images were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Analyses revealed that age correlated negatively with task performance. Voxel-based morphometry analysis revealed that age was associated with grey matter declines in task-relevant cortical areas and that grey matter in these areas was negatively associated with task performance. However, no evidence for a mediating effect of grey matter in age-related bimanual performance decline was observed. We propose a new hypothesis that functional compensation may account for the observed absence of mediation, which is in line with the observed pattern of increased inter-individual variance in performance with age.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy (P7/11); Research Fund KU Leuven (C16/15/070.); and FWO Vlaanderen (G.0721.12, G0708.14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Motor Control Laboratory, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Tervuursevest 101, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

    Peter van Ruitenbeek, Leen Serbruyns, Elena Solesio-Jofre, Raf Meesen, Koen Cuypers & Stephan P. Swinnen

  2. Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, REVAL Rehabilitation Research Centre, Biomedical Research Institute, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Raf Meesen & Koen Cuypers

  3. Leuven Research Institute for Neuroscience and Disease (LIND), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Stephan P. Swinnen

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  1. Peter van Ruitenbeek
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Correspondence to Peter van Ruitenbeek.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All human volunteers signed the informed consent form prior to inclusion.

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van Ruitenbeek, P., Serbruyns, L., Solesio-Jofre, E. et al. Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioural decline. Brain Struct Funct 222, 437–448 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1226-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1226-9

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