Cortical thickness is linked to executive functioning in adulthood and aging

Abstract

Executive functions that are dependent upon the frontal-parietal network decline considerably during the course of normal aging. To delineate neuroanatomical correlates of age-related executive impairment, we investigated the relation between cortical thickness and executive functioning in 73 younger (20-32 years) and 56 older (60-71 years) healthy adults. Executive functioning was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Cortical thickness was measured at each location of the cortical mantle using surface-based segmentation procedures on high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance images. For regions involved in WCST performance, such as the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, we found that thicker cortex was related to higher accuracy. Follow-up ROI-based analyses revealed that these associations were stronger in older than in younger adults. Moreover, among older adults, high and low performers differed in cortical thickness within regions generally linked to WCST performance. Our results indicate that the structural cortical correlates of executive functioning largely overlap with previously identified functional patterns. We conclude that structural preservation of relevant brain regions is associated with higher levels of executive performance in old age, and underscore the need to consider the heterogeneity of brain aging in relation to cognitive functioning. Hum Brain Mapp 33:1607-1620,

Structural brain markers are differentially associated with neurocognitive profiles in socially marginalized people with multimorbid illness.

“…A practical recommendation moving forward would be to screen for cognitive impairment given the central role of neurocognition in performing complex everyday activities (Gorman et al, 2009;Morgan & Heaton, 2009). Moreover, screening should be considered especially important in older adults, around 45 years and over, given neurocognition is more strongly tied to brain integrity in later life (Burzynska et al, 2012).…”

“…4) Age will modulate the relationship between cortical thickness and neurocognitive clusters, with stronger associations in older individuals (Burzynska et al, 2012), given the malleability of cortical thickness across the lifespan.…”

“…Second, although structure-function associations are variable across the lifespan, they tend to be stronger in older adults (Burzynska et al, 2012;Raz & Rodrigue, 2006) and in the context of psychopathology (Premkumar, Kumari, Corr, Fannon, & Sharma, 2008).…”

Interactive Visual Analysis of Heterogeneous Cohort-Study Data

“…According to the neuropsychologist, this is a new finding, but something that requires further investigation because this analysis is done on the raw data, not corrected for basic skills. At this point we also wonder whether any relation between the Stroop task scores and the cortical thickness is present in the data, as thickness is another measure that has been shown to correlate with level of cognitive functions [3] We proceed as before, opposing the cortical thickness measure to the scores of the Stroop task in a scatterplot (Fig. 4h).…”

Structural and functional neural correlates of a mind-body connection.

“…Increases in thickness and volume in these prefrontal regions have been linked to greater executive function and performance on cognitive control tasks (Burzynska et al, 2012;Ehrlich et al, 2012;Yuan & Raz, 2014).…”