Aging patterns of Japanese auditory semantic processing: an fMRI study

ABSTRACT

The efficacy of listening comprehension is presumably sustained over the life span, contradicting the stereotype of universal cognitive decline. It is thus worth investigating whether and how the preserved auditory semantic function is supported by affected or unaffected neural mechanism with age. To investigate this issue, 22 younger and 21 older Japanese adults were imaged in a 3 Tesla MRI scanner while performing an auditory semantic-tone task. Results showed that (a) relative to younger adults, older participants had preserved accuracy and slowed responses, underpinned by weakened interconnectivity and largely unchanged activation and laterality; (b) older adults with superior performance developed increased regional left-lateralization and stronger interregional connectivity within the domain-general networks; (c) these age-related or performance-related cortical reorganizations were largely consistent with neurocognitive aging models that were supported by age-sensitive cognitive domains, suggesting that these models might also be accountable for relatively age-intact cognitive functions such as auditory semantic processing.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• dedifferentiation
• compensation
• CRUNCH
• HAROLD

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI #15H03104 and 19H04025); and a funding source for NTU-SUG from Nanyang Technological University. The second author was supported by a generous gift of Swartz Foundation (Old Field, New York). The authors would like to sincerely thank Dr. Luis Morgado da Costa and Prof. Francis Bond for their assistance in providing the usage frequency for the Japanese word stimuli. The authors would also like to thank Alvin Lim KhengSeng for his assistance in the initial manuscript proofreading.

Author contributions

HL contributed to data analysis and manuscript writing. AC and HL conceptualized the study. MM, TN, and AC contributed to the design of the study and data collection. MM, TN, and AC obtained funding and provided input to the write up of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [KAKENHI #15H03104 and 19H04025]; a funding source for NTU-SUG from Nanyang Technological University.