ABSTRACT

The efficacy of listening comprehension is presumably sustained over the life span, contradicting the stereotype of universal cognitive decline. It is thus worth investigating whether and how the preserved auditory semantic function is supported by affected or unaffected neural mechanism with age. To investigate this issue, 22 younger and 21 older Japanese adults were imaged in a 3 Tesla MRI scanner while performing an auditory semantic-tone task. Results showed that (a) relative to younger adults, older participants had preserved accuracy and slowed responses, underpinned by weakened interconnectivity and largely unchanged activation and laterality; (b) older adults with superior performance developed increased regional left-lateralization and stronger interregional connectivity within the domain-general networks; (c) these age-related or performance-related cortical reorganizations were largely consistent with neurocognitive aging models that were supported by age-sensitive cognitive domains, suggesting that these models might also be accountable for relatively age-intact cognitive functions such as auditory semantic processing.

摘要

听力理解的效果可能会在整个生命周期内持续，这与普遍认知衰退的刻板印象相矛盾。因此，值得研究的是，随着年龄的增长，受影响或未受影响的神经机制是否以及如何支持保留的听觉语义功能。为了调查这个问题，在执行听觉语义音任务时，22 名年轻和 21 名日本成年人在 3 特斯拉 MRI 扫描仪中成像。结果表明，（a）相对于年轻人，年长的参与者保持了准确性并减缓了反应，这得益于削弱的互连性和基本不变的激活和偏侧性；(b) 表现出众的老年人在一般领域网络内发展出区域左偏化和更强的区域间连通性；