Aging-related changes in brain activation and deactivation during cognition
Deactivation of certain brain areas during cognitive control and increased activation of prefrontal areas in aging are two examples of consistently found patterns of fMRI activation that have had a large impact on the study of the human mind, but that prompt major questions of interpretation. We utilize PET-MR to simultaneously assess the fMRI signal, blood flow and PET glucose metabolism during cognitive task performance. The study aims to disentangle the hemodynamic and metabolic contributions to fMRI deactivations and prefrontal over-activation in aging during cognitive task performance. Learn more about the project and results here.