Ageing and the Impact of Cognitive Demand on the Strength of Functional Connectivity Throughout the Brain

Abstract

Functional connectivity refers to the way brain regions interact during various cognitive tasks. The current study examined how functional connectivity changes with increasing task difficulty and whether these effects are influenced by age. Two hypotheses were tested in the current study. The first hypothesis is that the strength of functional connectivity during increasing cognitive demand will differ with age in some brain regions. The second hypothesis is that the strength of functional connectivity will change due to cognitive demand, independent of age in other regions. Results showed that increasing cognitive demand was associated with increased connectivity in regions such as the middle temporal gyrus and the right planum temporale, while other regions showed decreased connectivity independent of age. These findings suggest that cognitive demand and age may have different effects on functional connections within the brain.