Language communication is crucial throughout the lifespan. The current study investigated how aging affects the brain network subserving intelligible speech. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared brain responses to intelligible and unintelligible speech between older and young adults. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed reduced brain activation and lower regional pattern distinctions in response to intelligible versus unintelligible speech in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) and the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in the older compared with young adults. Notably, the functional connectivity between the left IFG and the left angular gyrus (AG) was increased and a significantly enhanced bidirectional effective connectivity between the left aSTG and the left AG was observed in the older adults for processing speech intelligibility. Our study revealed aging-related differences in the cortical activity for intelligible speech and suggested that increased frontal-temporal-parietal functional integration may help facilitate spoken language processing in older adults.

中文翻译：

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皮质网络中与衰老相关的差异支持可理解的语音

语言交流在整个生命周期中都至关重要。目前的研究调查了衰老如何影响支持可理解语音的大脑网络。使用功能性磁共振成像，我们比较了老年人和年轻人对可理解和不可理解的语音的大脑反应。单变量和多变量分析显示，与年轻人相比，老年人的左前颞上回 (aSTG) 和左额下回 (IFG) 的大脑激活减少，区域模式差异降低。尤其，左侧 IFG 和左角回 (AG) 之间的功能连接增加，并且在老年人中观察到左侧 aSTG 和左侧 AG 之间的双向有效连接显着增强，以处理语音清晰度。我们的研究揭示了可理解语音的皮质活动与衰老相关的差异，并表明增加的额颞顶叶功能整合可能有助于促进老年人的口语处理。