Structural architecture supports functional organization in the human aging brain at a regionwise and network level
Functional interactions in the brain are constrained by the underlying anatomical architecture, and structural and functional networks share network features such as modularity. Accordingly, age related changes of structural connectivity (SC) may be paralleled by changes in functional connectivity (FC) We provide a detailed qualitative and quantitative characterization of the SC FC coupling in human aging as inferred from resting state blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion weighted imaging in a sample of 47 adults with an age range of 18 82. We revealed that SC and FC decrease with age across most parts of the brain and there is a distinct age dependency of regionwise SC FC coupling and network level SC FC relations. A specific pattern of SC FC coupling predicts age more reliably than does regionwise SC or FC alone (r 0.73, 95% CI [0.7093, 0.8522] Hence, our data propose that regionwise SC FC coupling can be used to characterize brain changes in aging. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2645 2661, 2016. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Human brain mapping