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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on January 11, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2006 16(12):1739-1749; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhj109
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Neural Correlates of Declining Performance with Age: Evidence for Age-Related Changes in Cognitive Control

David J. Sharp1, Sophie K. Scott1, Mitul A. Mehta1,2 and Richard J.S. Wise1

1 MRC-Cyclotron Unit, Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College, London W12 0NN, UK, 2 Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London SE5 8AF, UK

Address correspondence to Dr David Sharp, MRC Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, W12 0NN London, UK. Email: david.sharp{at}ic.ac.uk.

The neural system involved in cognitive control includes the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Neural activity within these structures is sensitive to aging. We investigated the hypothesis that decline in performance with age results in increased cognitive control, as indexed by greater activity within the ACC and lateral PFC. Using positron emission tomography we measured neural activity during a range of verbal decision-making tasks in 16 subjects aged 37–83 years. Conditions were separated behaviorally on the basis of their sensitivity to aging. This allowed the comparison of age-dependent and age-independent conditions, revealing the neural correlates of age-dependent decline in performance. We then modeled the relationship between age, decision type, performance, and frontal lobe activity. ACC activity was independently predicted by age and decision-making accuracy, indicating that in older individuals ACC response is more sensitive to declining performance. We also found strong functional connectivity between the ACC and lateral PFC and observed that activation of the lateral PFC was qualitatively different over time in different age groups. Thus, the ACC and lateral PFC show distinct responses to age-related decline in decision-making performance. This suggests that greater cognitive control is employed as individuals age and their performance declines.

Key Words: aging • cingulate • imaging • memory • prefrontal


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