Alterations in rhythmic and non‐rhythmic resting‐state EEG activity and their link to cognition in older age
Autor(in); Institution
Cesnaite, Elena; Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, GERMANY
Steinfath, Paul; Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, GERMANY; International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Leipzig, GERMANY
Idaji, Mina Jamshidi; Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, GERMANY; International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Leipzig, GERMANY; Machine Learning Group, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
Stephani, Tilmann; Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, GERMANY; Machine Learning Group, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
Deniz, Kumral; Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, GERMANY; Institute of Psychology, Neuropsychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GERMANY; Institute of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Unit, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GERMANY
Haufe, Stefan; 8.4, Mathematische Modellierung und Datenanalyse, PTB-Berlin; Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, GERMANY; Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
While many structural and biochemical changes in the brain have previously been associated with older age, findings concerning functional properties of neuronal networks, as reflected in their electrophysiological signatures, remain rather controversial. These discrepancies might arise due to several reasons, including diverse factors determining general spectral slowing in the alpha frequency range as well as amplitude mixing between the rhythmic and non-rhythmic parameters. We used a large dataset (N = 1703, mean age 70) to comprehensively investigate age-related alterations in multiple EEG biomarkers taking into account rhythmic and non-rhythmic activity and their individual contributions to cognitive performance. While we found strong evidence for an individual alpha peak frequency (IAF) decline in older age, we did not observe a significant relationship between theta power and age while controlling for IAF. Not only did IAF decline with age, but it was also positively associated with interference resolution in a working memory task primarily in the right and left temporal lobes suggesting its functional role in information sampling. Critically, we did not detect a significant relationship between alpha power and age when controlling for the 1/f spectral slope, while the latter one showed age-related alterations. These findings thus suggest that the entanglement of IAF slowing and power in the theta frequency range, as well as 1/f slope and alpha power measures, might explain inconsistencies reported previously in the literature. Finally, despite the absence of age-related alterations, alpha power was negatively associated with the speed of processing in the right frontal lobe while 1/f slope showed no consistent relationship to cognitive performance. Our results thus demonstrate that multiple electrophysiological features, as well as their interplay, should be considered for the comprehensive assessment of association between age, neuronal activity, and cognitive performance.
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Rechteinformation
CC BY 4.0 ; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
Themenbereich der Metrologie
Metrologie in der Medizin
Zitierung
Cesnaite, E., Steinfath, P., Idaji, M. J., Stephani, T., Deniz, K., Haufe, S., & et al. (2023). Alterations in rhythmic and non‐rhythmic resting‐state EEG activity and their link to cognition in older age. NeuroImage, 268, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119810
