Age-related differences in cerebrovascular responses to cognitive stimulation using a novel method

Abstract

Aging is associated with a number of alterations to cerebrovascular function. We aimed to investigate the effect of age on cerebrovascular responses to cognitive stimulation using an objective two-parameter method. Previously derived from a large data-set (135 healthy participants) were applied to a task-activated dataset of 69 healthy participants in five different task conditions. Cumulative response rate (CRR) was calculated as the sum of responses across tasks and hemispheres. There was a significant effect of age (adjusted odds ratio: 1.02 (95% confidence interval: 1.01, 1.04), p = 0.016). There was also a significant effect of task (p = 0.002), but there was no significant interaction between age and task (p = 0.37). Increasing age was associated with increased CRR (adjusted odds ratio: 1.04 (95% confidence interval: 1.01, 1.07), p = 0.009). Using an objective two-parameter method, healthy older adults had increased cerebrovascular responses to cognitive testing.