Relationship between prefrontal oxygenation during task-set period and executive function in healthy older people: A near-infrared spectroscopy study

IF 2.2 4区医学 Q3 NEUROSCIENCES

Neuroscience Letters Pub Date : 2025-11-20 Epub Date: 2025-09-27 DOI:10.1016/j.neulet.2025.138395

Yumi Oboshi , Mitsuru Kikuchi , Yasuomi Ouchi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

In past research, we have examined the characteristics of brain activity caused by prefrontal task completion in healthy older adults in a simplified manner using a near-infrared spectroscopy device, with the aim of identifying methods of early intervention to prevent their cognitive decline. Previously, we reported that prefrontal oxygenation during pre-task preparation was greater in young adults than older adults, and that this greater activation was associated with better task performances in both groups. To extend this research, in the present study, we examined previous findings with task repetitions, as older adults take more time to become familiar new tasks.

Methods

We modified the working memory task with a clear task-set instruction and examined the change in the task-set and task-induced activation in 63 cognitively healthy older adults.

Results

Task-set activation did not increase even after three repetitions, and the task-induced activation was greater than task-set activation in most channels. The difference in degree between task-induced activation and task-set activation showed a reduction with task repetitions. Significant inverse correlations were observed between the prefrontal activation due to the task itself in the third session, i.e., after task repetitions and the reaction time of the Trail Making Test, which represents attentional function.

Discussion

These results indicate that continued activation by the task itself, which persists even after older adults become familiar with the task, may be associated with executive function decline.

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健康老年人任务设定期前额叶氧合与执行功能的关系：近红外光谱研究

在过去的研究中，我们使用近红外光谱设备以简化的方式检查了健康老年人前额叶任务完成引起的大脑活动特征，目的是确定早期干预方法，以防止他们的认知能力下降。在此之前，我们报道了年轻人在任务前准备过程中的前额叶氧合比老年人更大，并且这种更大的激活与两组更好的任务表现有关。为了扩展这项研究，在本研究中，我们对先前的研究结果进行了检查，因为老年人需要更多的时间来熟悉新任务。方法：采用明确的任务集指令修改工作记忆任务，观察63名认知健康老年人工作记忆任务集和任务诱发激活的变化。结果：三次重复后，任务集激活并未增加，且大多数通道的任务诱发激活大于任务集激活。任务诱发激活和任务集激活的程度差异随着任务的重复而减小。在第三阶段，即任务重复后，由任务本身引起的前额叶激活与代表注意功能的造径测试反应时间呈显著负相关。讨论：这些结果表明，任务本身的持续激活，即使在成年人熟悉任务后仍然存在，可能与执行功能下降有关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Neuroscience Letters 医学-神经科学

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

408

审稿时长

50 days

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