SynthesisJournal of cognitive neuroscience2021
The Aging Brain and Executive Functions Revisited: Implications from Meta-analytic and Functional-Connectivity Evidence.
Synthesis in Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- A meta-analysis of cognitive flexibility in aging: Perspective from functional network and lateralization.Human brain mapping · 2024Pooled it
- Success versus failure in cognitive control: Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies on error processing.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of a group-based 8-week multicomponent cognitive training on cognition, mood and activities of daily living among healthy older adults: A two-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Trial
- Preserved topography, lateralization, selectivity, and functional connectivity of the language network in older brains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Multidimensional modeling of biological aging: integrating gait, eye movement, rest-state functional connectivity, and plasma biomarkers in non-dementia older adults.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Association of 24-hour movement guideline adherence with inhibitory control in older adults: the mediating role of general self-efficacy.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Inhibition/excitation balance is associated with functional connectivity during cognitive flexibility performance.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Biological brain aging, cognitive-motor decline and vascular risk: a multivariate imaging analysis of 40,579 individuals.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Slower transitions between control states lead to reductions in cognitive flexibility over the lifespan.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Top-down attention and Alzheimer's pathology affect cortical selectivity during learning, influencing episodic memory in older adults.Science advances · 2025Article
- Parietal alpha and theta power predict cognitive training gains in middle-aged adults.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Association between Inhibitory-Excitatory Balance and Brain Activity Response during Cognitive Flexibility in Young and Older Individuals.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Age-related neural changes underlying long-term recognition of musical sequences.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Brain imaging of a gamified cognitive flexibility task in young and older adults.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Article
- Split-half reliability estimates of an online card sorting task in a community sample of young and elderly adults.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Macronutrient intake is associated with intelligence and neural development in adolescents.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Brain functional characterization of response-code conflict in dual-tasking and its modulation by age.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023Article
- The effects of typical ageing on cognitive control: recent advances and future directions.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Healthy aging is associated with changes in cognitive performance, including executive functions (EFs) and their associated brain activation patterns. However, it has remained unclear which EF-related brain regions are affected consistently, because the results of pertinent neuroimaging studies and earlier meta-analyses vary considerably. We, therefore, conducted new rigorous meta-analyses of published age differences in EF-related brain activity. Out of a larger set of regions associated with EFs, only left inferior frontal junction and left anterior cuneus/precuneus were found to show consistent age differences. To further characterize these two age-sensitive regions, we performed seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RS-FC) analyses using fMRI data from a large adult sample with a wide age range. We also assessed associations of the two regions' whole-brain RS-FC patterns with age and EF performance. Although our results largely point toward a domain-general role of left inferior frontal junction in EFs, the pattern of individual study contributions to the meta-analytic results suggests process-specific modulations by age. Our analyses further indicate that the left anterior cuneus/precuneus is recruited differently by older (compared with younger) adults during EF tasks, potentially reflecting inefficiencies in switching the attentional focus. Overall, our findings question earlier meta-analytic results and suggest a larger heterogeneity of age-related differences in brain activity associated with EFs. Hence, they encourage future research that pays greater attention to replicability, investigates age-related differences in deactivation, and focuses on more narrowly defined EF subprocesses, combining multiple behavioral assessments with multimodal imaging.
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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.