Objective: With the rapidly increasing average age of developed-world population and extended life expectancy, the effects of healthy aging on various brain networks are becoming of paramount importance.

Background: While the majority of current literature focuses on the supratentorial circuits, especially the prefrontal cortex, the cerebellum has largely avoided attention despite important implications.

Methods: We included 67 healthy subjects of various ages ranging from 25 to 72 volunteers (36 women, mean age 45.61; SD 14.63) to a fMRI study using a task heavily based on cerebellar functions – predictive motor timing. The subjects were supposed to hit a target moving with various speeds with a projectile released by button press. In addition to the behavioural assessment of the success rate, we performed complex fMRI analysis, utilizing an advanced method of cerebellar processing of BOLD signal and anatomical scans (voxel-based morphometry), allowing us to exclude the supratentorial structures to vastly improve the co-registration and avoid cerebellar deformation.

Results: The increasing age did not affect the success rate at all. However, this stable behavioural performance was associated with significant hyperactivation dominantly in the posterior lobes of the cerebellum. The profile of atrophy was more pronounced in the posterior cerebellum (bilateral crus I, left crus II, right lobule VI, and right lobule and vermis IX), the anterior cerebellum was affected only slightly (left lobule V). No age-related GM volume increase was found. Moreover, the extent of cerebellar grey matter volume decrease was far more significant than the general grey matter decrease in the supratentorial area and the very parts showing hyperactivation in BOLD fMRI were affected by the age-related atrophy far more than other cerebellar segments.

Conclusions: The cerebellum responds to the increasing age by hyperactivating relevant areas, thus compensating for the age-related atrophy. Interestingly, despite the vast decrease of grey matter volume, it is able to maintain stable performance even in high age.

References: Seidler RD, Bernard JA, Burutolu TB, Fling BW, Gordon MT, Gwin JT, et al. Motor control and aging: links to age-related brain structural, functional, and biochemical effects. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2010;34(5):721-33. Filip P, Lungu OV, Bares M. Dystonia and the cerebellum: A new field of interest in movement disorders? Clinical Neurophysiology. 2013 124(7):1269-76. Filip P, Gallea C, Lehéricy S, Bertasi E, Popa T, Mareček R, et al. Disruption in cerebellar and basal ganglia networks during a visuospatial task in cervical dystonia. Movement Disorders. 2017;32(5):757-68.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mri-and-behavioural-account-of-the-aging-cerebellum/