Positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that healthy aging is associated with functional brain deterioration that preferentially affects the prefrontal cortex. This article reviews the application of an alternative method, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to the study of age-related changes in cerebral hemodynamics and factors that influence cerebral hemodynamics in the elderly population. We conducted literature searches in PudMed and PsycINFO, and selected only English original research articles that used fNIRS to study healthy individuals with a mean age of ≥ 55 years. All articles were published in peer-reviewed journals between 1977 and May 2019. We synthesized 114 fNIRS studies examining hemodynamic changes that occurred in the resting state and during the tasks of sensation and perception, motor control, semantic processing, word retrieval, attentional shifting, inhibitory control, memory, and emotion and motivation in healthy older adults. This review, which was not registered in a registry, reveals an age-related reduction in resting-state cerebral oxygenation and connectivity in the prefrontal cortex. It also shows that aging is associated with a reduction in functional hemispheric asymmetry and increased compensatory activity in the frontal lobe across multiple task domains. In addition, this article describes the beneficial effects of healthy lifestyles and the detrimental effects of cardiovascular disease risk factors on brain functioning among nondemented older adults. Limitations of this review include exclusion of gray and non-English literature and lack of meta-analysis. Altogether, the fNIRS literature provides some support for various neurocognitive aging theories derived from task-based PET and fMRI studies. Because fNIRS is relatively motion-tolerant and environmentally unconstrained, it is a promising tool for fostering the development of aging biomarkers and antiaging interventions.

正电子发射断层扫描 (PET) 和功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 研究表明，健康衰老与功能性大脑退化有关，而大脑功能退化会优先影响前额叶皮层。本文回顾了替代方法功能近红外光谱 (fNIRS) 在研究老年人脑血流动力学的年龄相关变化和影响脑血流动力学的因素中的应用。我们在 PudMed 和 PsycINFO 中进行了文献检索，仅选择了使用 fNIRS 研究平均年龄 ≥ 55 岁的健康个体的英文原创研究文章。所有文章均于 1977 年至 2019 年 5 月期间发表在同行评审期刊上。我们综合了 114 项 fNIRS 研究，检查健康老年人在静息状态下以及在感觉和知觉、运动控制、语义处理、单词检索、注意力转移、抑制控制、记忆以及情绪和动机任务期间发生的血流动力学变化。这篇未在注册表中注册的评论揭示了静息状态脑氧合和前额叶皮层连通性的年龄相关性降低。它还表明，衰老与功能性半球不对称的减少和额叶跨多个任务域的代偿活动增加有关。此外，本文还描述了健康生活方式的有益影响以及心血管疾病危险因素对非痴呆老年人脑功能的不利影响。本综述的局限性包括排除灰色和非英语文献以及缺乏荟萃分析。总之，fNIRS 文献为源自基于任务的 PET 和 fMRI 研究的各种神经认知衰老理论提供了一些支持。由于 fNIRS 相对具有运动耐受性且不受环境约束，因此它是促进衰老生物标志物和抗衰老干预措施发展的有前途的工具。