Age-Related Differences in Cardiac Autonomic Control at Resting State and in Response to Mental Stress.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Grassler B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8700263 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Previous functional imaging studies have identified the role of central autonomic network (CAN) in autonomic regulation during various tasks. However, its variability with respect to gender and age, particularly in the resting state, remains poorly understood. Therefore, in this study we systematically investigated gender- and age-related differences in the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) seeded from core regions of this network, namely posterior mid-cingulate gyrus (pMCC), left amygdala, right anterior and left posterior insula, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), using a large cross-sectional adulthood sample. Results revealed that each of the seeded connectivity maps engaged in at least one of the large-scale brain networks including sensorimotor, attentional, basal ganglia, limbic, and default mode networks (DMN). In the early-adulthood stage, females had stronger negative rsFC in pMCC and right anterior INS (aINS) with the medial DMN than males, possibly reflecting their greater suppression of the sympathoexcitation associated with sex hormonal estrogen. Whereas in the late-adulthood stage, they showed stronger positive rsFC in pMCC with postcentral gyrus and weaker negative rsFC with the most DMN, possibly relating to their higher risk of depression, anxiety, and dementia than males after menopause. Moreover, females demonstrated reduced negative rsFC in pMCC with dorsal PCUN/PCC and left AG with advancing age, whereas males showed the opposite pattern, namely increased positive rsFC, in pMCC with right SMG, and in vmPFC with ventral PCUN. We interpret these results as their differences of altered autonomic regulation associated with pain experience and reflective movement, respectively, due to aging. In sum, our findings add in literature that autonomic responses can be also represented intrinsically in the resting brain, and gender- and age-related differences might be associated with sex hormones and sensorimotor abilities, respectively.
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Project description:Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) has emerged as a powerful tool for investigating brain functional connectivity (FC). Research in recent years has focused on assessing the reliability of FC across younger subjects within and between scan-sessions. Test-retest reliability in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) has not yet been examined in older adults. In this study, we investigated age-related differences in reliability and stability of RSFC across scans. In addition, we examined how global signal regression (GSR) affects RSFC reliability and stability. Three separate resting-state scans from 29 younger adults (18-35 yrs) and 26 older adults (55-85 yrs) were obtained from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) dataset made publically available as part of the 1000 Functional Connectomes project www.nitrc.org/projects/fcon_1000. 92 regions of interest (ROIs) with 5 cubic mm radius, derived from the default, cingulo-opercular, fronto-parietal and sensorimotor networks, were previously defined based on a recent study. Mean time series were extracted from each of the 92 ROIs from each scan and three matrices of z-transformed correlation coefficients were created for each subject, which were then used for evaluation of multi-scan reliability and stability. The young group showed higher reliability of RSFC than the old group with GSR (p-value = 0.028) and without GSR (p-value <0.001). Both groups showed a high degree of multi-scan stability of RSFC and no significant differences were found between groups. By comparing the test-retest reliability of RSFC with and without GSR across scans, we found significantly higher proportion of reliable connections in both groups without GSR, but decreased stability. Our results suggest that aging is associated with reduced reliability of RSFC which itself is highly stable within-subject across scans for both groups, and that GSR reduces the overall reliability but increases the stability in both age groups and could potentially alter group differences of RSFC.
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Project description:OBJECTIVE:Early life stress has been shown to influence the developing autonomic nervous system. Stressors in infancy may program the autonomic nervous system resting state set point, affecting cardiovascular function in later life. Excessive crying may be an indicator of increased stress arousal in infancy. We hypothesized that excessive infant crying is related to altered cardiac autonomic nervous system activity and increased blood pressure at age 5-6 years. METHODS:In the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development study, excessive crying, maternal burden of infant care and maternal aggressive behavior in the 13th week after birth (range 11-16 weeks) were reported using questionnaires. Blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability and indicators of cardiac autonomic nervous system activity (sympathetic drive by pre-ejection period, parasympathetic drive by respiratory sinus arrhythmia) were measured at age 5-6 years during rest. Inclusion criteria were singleton birth, term-born, and no reported congenital or cardiovascular problems (N = 2153 included). RESULTS:Excessive crying (2.8%) was not associated with resting heart rate, heart rate variability, pre-ejection period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia nor with blood pressure at age 5-6 years. CONCLUSIONS:Excessive infant crying as an indicator of increased stress arousal does not seem to be related to resting activity of the autonomic nervous system or blood pressure at age 5-6. Potential associations may become visible under stressed conditions.
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