ArticleBMC neurology2019
Michigan Neural Distinctiveness (MiND) study protocol: investigating the scope, causes, and consequences of age-related neural dedifferentiation.
Article in BMC neurology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dynamic Recovery: GABA Agonism Restores Neural Variability in Older, Poorer Performing Adults.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Trial
- GABA Levels Are Significantly Reduced in the Visual, Motor, and Auditory Cortex of Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.Aging and disease · 2025Article
- Modulation of brain signal variability in visual cortex reflects aging, GABA, and behavior.eLife · 2025Article
- Age and visual cortex inhibition: a TMS-MRS study.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Edge-Community Entropy Is a Novel Neural Correlate of Aging and Moderator of Fluid Cognition.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- GABA levels decline with age: A longitudinal study.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Age-related declines in neural distinctiveness correlate across brain areas and result from both decreased reliability and increased confusability.Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition · 2022Article
- The anti-anxiety drug lorazepam changes implicit behaviors but not explicit evaluations of sense of agency under authoritative pressure: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Greater Neural Differentiation in the Ventral Visual Cortex Is Associated with Youthful Memory in Superaging.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Article
- Age-Related Differences in White Matter: Understanding Tensor-Based Results Using Fixel-Based Analysis.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Article
- GABA levels in ventral visual cortex decline with age and are associated with neural distinctiveness.Neurobiology of aging · 2021Article
- Tracking Age Differences in Neural Distinctiveness across Representational Levels.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
- Cortical Engagement Metrics During Reactive Balance Are Associated With Distinct Aspects of Balance Behavior in Older Adults.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Article
- Neural distinctiveness declines with age in auditory cortex and is associated with auditory GABA levels.NeuroImage · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAging is often associated with behavioral impairments, but some people age more gracefully than others. Why? One factor that may play a role is individual differences in the distinctiveness of neural representations. Previous research has found that neural activation patterns in visual cortex in response to different visual stimuli are often more similar (i.e., less distinctive) in older vs. young participants, a phenomenon referred to as age-related neural dedifferentiation. Furthermore, older people whose neural representations are less distinctive tend to perform worse on a wide range of behavioral tasks. The Michigan Neural Distinctiveness (MiND) project aims to investigate the scope of neural dedifferentiation (e.g., does it also occur in auditory, motor, and somatosensory cortex?), one potential cause (age-related reductions in the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)), and the behavioral consequences of neural dedifferentiation. This protocol paper describes the study rationale and methods being used in complete detail, but not the results (data collection is currently underway).
methodsThe MiND project consists of two studies: the main study and a drug study. In the main study, we are recruiting 60 young and 100 older adults to perform behavioral tasks that measure sensory and cognitive function. They also participate in functional MRI (fMRI), MR spectroscopy, and diffusion weighted imaging sessions, providing data on neural distinctiveness and GABA concentrations. In the drug study, we are recruiting 25 young and 25 older adults to compare neural distinctiveness, measured with fMRI, after participants take a placebo or a benzodiazepine (lorazepam) that should increase GABA activity. DISCUSSION: By collecting multimodal imaging measures along with extensive behavioral measures from the same subjects, we are linking individual differences in neurochemistry, neural representation, and behavioral performance, rather than focusing solely on group differences between young and old participants. Our findings have the potential to inform new interventions for age-related declines.
trial registrationThis study was retrospectively registered with the ISRCTN registry on March 4, 2019. The registration number is ISRCTN17266136 .
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