Dataset Information

White matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults.

ABSTRACT: Temporal discounting, the tendency to select a smaller reward offered sooner over a larger reward offered at a later time, has been associated with a number of real-world decision-making outcomes important for health and wellbeing. Neurobiological mechanisms supporting temporal discounting have been explored among younger participants, and these have considered white matter integrity. However, the white matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults are unclear. We hypothesized that greater temporal discounting would be associated with poorer white matter integrity measures, more specifically lower fractional anisotropy and higher trace, in older adults. Participants were 302 older persons without dementia (mean age?=?81.38, mean years of education?=?15.75, 75.5% female, mean MMSE?=?28.29) from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a community-based longitudinal study of aging. Temporal discounting was assessed using standard elicitation questions. White matter integrity was assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Regression models were adjusted for the effects of age, sex, education, and white matter lesions. Secondary models further adjusted for global cognition. Results revealed significant associations between temporal discounting and white matter integrity measures (FA and trace) in bilateral frontal, frontostriatal, and temporal-parietal lobe white matter tracts, and results remained significant after further accounting for global cognition. These results suggest that temporal discounting is inversely associated with white matter integrity in old age and that this association is independent of global cognition.

SUBMITTER: Han SD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6379138 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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White matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults.

Han S Duke SD Arfanakis Konstantinos K Fleischman Debra A DA Yu Lei L Bennett David A DA Boyle Patricia A PA

Brain structure & function 20180710 8

Temporal discounting, the tendency to select a smaller reward offered sooner over a larger reward offered at a later time, has been associated with a number of real-world decision-making outcomes important for health and wellbeing. Neurobiological mechanisms supporting temporal discounting have been explored among younger participants, and these have considered white matter integrity. However, the white matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults are unclear. We hypothesized that g ...[more]

PMID: 29992469

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Project description:ObjectivesThis study was designed to evaluate binaural temporal processing in young and older adults using a binaural masking level difference (BMLD) paradigm. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures within the same listeners, a series of stimulus manipulations was used to evaluate the relative contribution of binaural temporal fine-structure and temporal envelope cues. We evaluated the hypotheses that age-related declines in the BMLD task would be more strongly associated with temporal fine-structure than envelope cues and that age-related declines in behavioral measures would be correlated with cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) measures.DesignThirty adults participated in the study, including 10 young normal-hearing, 10 older normal-hearing, and 10 older hearing-impaired adults with bilaterally symmetric, mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Behavioral and CAEP thresholds were measured for diotic (So) and dichotic (Sπ) tonal signals presented in continuous diotic (No) narrowband noise (50-Hz wide) maskers. Temporal envelope cues were manipulated by using two different narrowband maskers; Gaussian noise (GN) with robust envelope fluctuations and low-noise noise (LNN) with minimal envelope fluctuations. The potential to use temporal fine-structure cues was controlled by varying the signal frequency (500 or 4000 Hz), thereby relying on the natural decline in phase-locking with increasing frequency.ResultsBehavioral and CAEP thresholds were similar across groups for diotic conditions, while the masking release in dichotic conditions was larger for younger than for older participants. Across all participants, BMLDs were larger for GN than LNN and for 500-Hz than for 4000-Hz conditions, where envelope and fine-structure cues were most salient, respectively. Specific age-related differences were demonstrated for 500-Hz dichotic conditions in GN and LNN, reflecting reduced binaural temporal fine-structure coding. No significant age effects were observed for 4000-Hz dichotic conditions, consistent with similar use of binaural temporal envelope cues across age in these conditions. For all groups, thresholds and derived BMLD values obtained using the behavioral and CAEP methods were strongly correlated, supporting the notion that CAEP measures may be useful as an objective index of age-related changes in binaural temporal processing.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate an age-related decline in the processing of binaural temporal fine-structure cues with preserved temporal envelope coding that was similar with and without mild-to-moderate peripheral hearing loss. Such age-related changes can be reliably indexed by both behavioral and CAEP measures in young and older adults.

Project description:Frontal lobe structures decline faster than most other brain regions in older adults. Age-related change in the frontal lobe is associated with poorer executive function (e.g., working memory, switching/set-shifting, and inhibitory control). The effects and presence of frontal lobe white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on executive function in normal aging is relatively unknown. The current study assessed relationships between region-specific frontal WMH load and cognitive performance in healthy older adults using three executive function tasks from the NIH Toolbox (NIHTB) Cognition Battery. A cohort of 279 healthy older adults ages 65-88 completed NIHTB and 3T T1-weighted and FLAIR MRI. Lesion Segmentation Toolbox quantified WMH volume and generated lesion probability maps. Individual lesion maps were registered to the Desikan-Killiany atlas in FreeSurfer 6.0 to define regions of interest (ROI). Independent linear regressions assessed relationships between executive function performance and region-specific WMH in frontal lobe ROIs. All models included age, sex, education, estimated total intracranial volume, multi-site scanner differences, and cardiovascular disease risk using Framingham criteria as covariates. Poorer set-shifting performance was associated with greater WMH load in three frontal ROIs including bilateral superior frontal (left β = -0.18, FDR-p = 0.02; right β = -0.20, FDR-p = 0.01) and right medial orbitofrontal (β = -0.17, FDR-p = 0.02). Poorer inhibitory performance associated with higher WMH load in one frontal ROI, the right superior frontal (right β = -0.21, FDR-p = 0.01). There were no significant associations between working memory and WMH in frontal ROIs. Our study demonstrates that location and pattern of frontal WMH may be important to assess when examining age-related differences in cognitive functions involving switching/set-shifting and inhibition. On the other hand, working memory performance was not related to presence of frontal WMH in this sample. These data suggest that WMH may contribute selectively to age-related declines in executive function. Findings emerged beyond predictors known to be associated with WMH presence, including age and cardiovascular disease risk. The spread of WMH within the frontal lobes may play a key role in the neuropsychological profile of cognitive aging. Further research should explore whether early intervention on modifiable vascular factors or cognitive interventions targeted for executive abilities may help mitigate the effect of frontal WMH on executive function.

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White matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults.

Publications

White matter correlates of temporal discounting in older adults.

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