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Age-related decrease in inter-subject similarity of cortical morphology and task and resting-state functional connectivity

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Abstract

“All old people are the same” is an unfortunate characterization of the perceived homogeneity in the older age group. This study attempts to debunk this myth in the context of the structural and functional brain. Within older relative to younger age groups, individuals are hypothesized to be more dissimilar to their similar-aged peers—thus demonstrating an age-related divergence. This study analyzed functional connectivity (FC) during multiple fMRI paradigms (2 rest + 5 tasks) and cortical thickness (CT) data from two lifespan datasets (Ntotal = 1161). On average, between-subject FC/CT correlations became weaker in the older age groups. Further analyses ruled out the possibility that more rapid age-related changes in older brains have increased the dissimilarity in these older age groups. Brain-wide analyses revealed significant effects of age-related divergence across most of the brain. Finally, CT similarity between a dyad significantly predicted their FC similarity across multiple fMRI task paradigms—demonstrating a close relationship between brain structure and function even at the between-dyad level. Contrary to the myth that “all old people are the same,” these findings suggest young people are more similar to each other. This study presents major implications in the study of neural fingerprinting and brain-behavior associations.

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Funding

Junhong Yu is supported by the Nanyang Assistant Professorship (Award no. 021080–00001). The HCP-Aging data used in the preparation of this manuscript were obtained from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA). NDA is a collaborative informatics system created by the National Institutes of Health to provide a national resource to support and accelerate research in mental health. Dataset identifier(s): https://doi.org/10.15154/6faj-nf83. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or of the Submitters submitting original data to NDA. The HCP-Aging study was supported by the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01AG052564 and by funds provided by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. The HCP-Aging 2.0 Release data used in this report came from https://doi.org/10.15154/1520707. Data collection and sharing for the CAM-CAN dataset was funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (grant number BB/H008217/1), together with support from the UK Medical Research Council and the University of Cambridge, UK.

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  1. Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Junhong Yu

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Yu, J. Age-related decrease in inter-subject similarity of cortical morphology and task and resting-state functional connectivity. GeroScience 46, 697–711 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-01008-9

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