Healthy older adults commonly report increased difficulties with language production. This could reflect decline in the language network, or age-related declines in other cognitive abilities that support language production, such as executive function. To examine this possibility, we conducted a whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis in older and younger adults using two seed regions-the left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus. Whole-brain connectivities were then correlated with Stroop task performance to investigate the relationship between RSFC and executive function. We found that overall, younger adults had stronger RSFC than older adults. Moreover, in older, but not younger, adults stronger RSFC between left IFG and right hemisphere executive function regions correlated with better Stroop performance. This suggests that stronger RSFC among older adults between left IFG and right hemisphere regions may serve a compensatory function.

中文翻译：

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更强的右半球功能连接支持老年人语言的执行方面

健康的老年人通常报告语言产生的困难增加。这可能反映了语言网络的衰退，或其他支持语言产生的认知能力（例如执行功能）的衰退。为了检验这种可能性，我们使用两个种子区域——左后颞上回和左额下回，对老年人和年轻人进行了全脑静息状态功能连接 (RSFC) 分析。然后将全脑连接与 Stroop 任务表现相关联，以研究 RSFC 与执行功能之间的关系。我们发现总体而言，年轻人比老年人具有更强的 RSFC。此外，在年长而不是年轻的情况下，成人左 IFG 和右半球执行功能区域之间的 RSFC 更强，与更好的 Stroop 表现相关。这表明在左 IFG 和右半球区域之间的老年人中更强的 RSFC 可能起到代偿作用。