ArticleNeuroImage2017
Age-related reduction of BOLD modulation to cognitive difficulty predicts poorer task accuracy and poorer fluid reasoning ability.
Article in NeuroImage, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Translation of task-evoked negative BOLD response into aging and Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review of the current literature.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The Characteristics of the Reduction of Interference Effect during Dual-Task Cognitive-Motor Training Compared to a Single Task Cognitive and Motor Training in Elderly: A Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Inter-individual differences in baseline dynamic functional connectivity are linked to cognitive aftereffects of tDCS.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Brain Structure-Function Association as a Compensatory Factor in Cognitive Aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Boosting brainpower in ageing: Task-specific and transfer effects of tDCS-enhanced working memory training.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Working Memory as a Candidate Mechanism Linking Aging and the Sense of Agency: A Narrative Review.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Midlife modulation of task switching brain activity reveals age specific neural adaptation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Integrating computational modeling, neuroimaging, and neuromodulation to decompose perceptual decision-making in healthy aging: a review of methods, findings, and gaps.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Elevated functional magnetic resonance imaging activity in cognitively normal participants predicts future dementia.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Associations Between Age, Heart Rate Variability, and BOLD fMRI Signal Variability.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mnemonic brain state engagement is diminished in healthy aging.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- Modulation of brain signal variability in visual cortex reflects aging, GABA, and behavior.eLife · 2025Article
- Age differences in BOLD modulation to task difficulty as a function of amyloid burden.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Network connectivity differences in music listening among older adults following a music-based intervention.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Network connectivity differences in music listening among older adults following a music-based intervention.Aging brain · 2024Article
- Brain signal variability and executive functions across the life span.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Disorganization of language and working memory systems in frontal versus temporal lobe epilepsy.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Age differences in the functional architecture of the human brain.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- Prediction in the Aging Brain: Merging Cognitive, Neurological, and Evolutionary Perspectives.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- Profiling the Research Landscape on Cognitive Aging: A Bibliometric Analysis and Network Visualization.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Aging is associated with reduced resources needed to perform difficult cognitive tasks, but the neural underpinnings are not well understood, especially as there is scant evidence linking functional brain differences to aging cognition. Therefore, the current study examined modulation of fMRI activation from easier to harder spatial distance judgments across a large lifespan sample (N=161; ages 20-94) to identify when in the lifespan modulation to difficulty begins to show deficits and if age-related modulation predicts cognition. Analyses revealed two sets of regions in which modulation increased with difficulty due to either more activation (positive modulation) or more deactivation (negative modulation) to difficulty. These two networks evidenced differential aging trajectories: a right-lateralized fronto-parietal network that decreased in modulation to difficulty between middle- and older-age, and a network of regions in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, left angular and middle frontal gyri that showed decreased modulation at the transition from younger to middle-age. Critically, older adults who maintained negative modulation to difficulty showed higher task accuracy. Further, individuals who showed greater coupling between positive and negative modulation performed better on a fluid reasoning task. Age-related preservation of coupled modulation in both cognitive control regions and regions typically associated with default network may be a salient marker of how the brain adapts to maintain cognitive function as we age.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.