ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Separating vascular and neuronal effects of age on fMRI BOLD signals.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
91 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Within-Individual BOLD Signal Variability and its Implications for Task-Based Cognition: A Systematic Review.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Functional connectivity changes in cerebral small vessel disease - a systematic review of the resting-state MRI literature.BMC medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Cardiovascular risk factors are associated with lower posterior-medial network functional connectivity in older adults.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Trial
- Brain signal variability during rest as a neural mechanism underlying cognitive reserve.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Ultrafast fMRI Detects Age-Related Changes in Harmonics of Cardiac Pulsations in the Brain at 7 T.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2026Article
- Resting-state functional MRI analysis of the brain's adaptation to chronic hypoxia: disease and environment.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2026Article
- Age and loneliness relate to reduced trust learning and alterations in amygdala function.iScience · 2026Article
- Cellular signatures underlying functional resilience in presymptomatic frontotemporal dementia.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- How to Foster Challenging Interdisciplinary Collaborations: Can Philosophy Support Neuroscientists?The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Review
- Age-Related Low Frequency Amplitude Differences in Resting-State Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Signal in the Cerebellum.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dysfunction of the episodic memory network in the Alzheimer's disease cascade.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Direct Evidence for the Feedforward Neurovascular Coupling Mechanism in Humans During Task Onset: An EEG-fNIRS-TCD Multimodal Imaging Study.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Distributed fMRI Patterns Coupled to Low-Frequency Cardiorespiratory Dynamics Provide Markers of Aging.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Temporal and Spatial Scales of Human Resting-State Cortical Activity across the Lifespan.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Group-level test-retest reliability assessment using systemic physiology augmented functional near-infrared spectroscopy during a passive-listening task.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Dentate Gyrus activation during visual but not auditory pattern separation: an investigation of perceptual modality differences in young and old individuals using fMRI.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Age-related variations of the hemodynamic response function spatially resolved across human cerebral cortex.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Distributed fMRI patterns coupled to low-frequency cardiorespiratory dynamics provide markers of aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Accurate identification of brain function is necessary to understand the neurobiology of cognitive ageing, and thereby promote well-being across the lifespan. A common tool used to investigate neurocognitive ageing is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, although fMRI data are often interpreted in terms of neuronal activity, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal measured by fMRI includes contributions of both vascular and neuronal factors, which change differentially with age. While some studies investigate vascular ageing factors, the results of these studies are not well known within the field of neurocognitive ageing and therefore vascular confounds in neurocognitive fMRI studies are common. Despite over 10 000 BOLD-fMRI papers on ageing, fewer than 20 have applied techniques to correct for vascular effects. However, neurovascular ageing is not only a confound in fMRI, but an important feature in its own right, to be assessed alongside measures of neuronal ageing. We review current approaches to dissociate neuronal and vascular components of BOLD-fMRI of regional activity and functional connectivity. We highlight emerging evidence that vascular mechanisms in the brain do not simply control blood flow to support the metabolic needs of neurons, but form complex neurovascular interactions that influence neuronal function in health and disease. This article is part of the theme issue 'Key relationships between non-invasive functional neuroimaging and the underlying neuronal activity'.
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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.