Science Bulletin Professor Zhanjun Zhang's research team proposed the "frontal lobe retention, temporal lobe damage (FPTI)" hypothesis to analyze the brain mechanism of success and pathological cognitive aging

After entering old age, people's cognitive ability will gradually decline, we call this process cognitive aging, the occurrence and development rate and severity of cognitive aging varies
from person to person.
Pathological cognitive aging represented by cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).
aging) group, whose cognitive loss accelerates, like an eraser in the mind, gradually erases
the previous picture of life.
However, we will also notice that there are also some elderly people who can maintain a good cognitive level even at an advanced age, and their cognitive status is even similar to that of young people, which is defined as the Successful cognitive aging (SCA) group
.
At present, the intrinsic brain mechanism of successful cognitive aging population to maintain a good cognitive state has not been clarified, and the commonality and specificity of the brain mechanism compared with pathological cognitive aging are unknown
.

Recently, Science Bulletin published an online titled "Successful or pathological.
" cognitive aging? converging into a ‘frontal preservation, temporal impairment (FPTI) 'hypothesis', which was completed by the Beijing Geriatric Brain Health Program (BABRI) team led by Professor Zhang Zhanjun, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning at Beijing Normal University.

This study systematically analyzes the similarities and differences between success and pathological cognitive aging brain structure from the level of gray matter morphological indicators, gray matter covariant network and white matter structure network, and proposes the hypothesis of "frontal preservation, temporal impairment (FPTI)" to explain the heterogeneity
of cognitive aging.

Differences in multidimensional brain structure indexes in success, normal and pathological cognitive aging groups

Based on the large community clinical cohort of BABRI (Alzheimers & Dementia, 2021), the study divided the successful cognitive aging group (SCA), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cognitive normal control (CNC) (BMC Geriatrics) according to multidimensional cognitive performance in a large sample population et al.
, 2022), which progressively investigated the whole brain gray matter volume, gray matter covariant network integrity and covariant intensity, and white matter topology network node efficiency
in three groups.

It was found that compared with the other two groups, the SCA group had a larger volume of left midfrontal gray matter, maintained higher integrity and covariant intensity in the frontal gray matter covariant network, and had higher node efficiency in the frontal-basal ganglion region.
Compared with the other two groups, the volume of left subtemporal gyrus gray matter decreased significantly, the integrity of the gray matter covariant network was reduced, and the efficiency of the white matter network nodes in the tempo-occipital region was impaired.
In addition, the three groups showed significant differences in the volume of gray matter on the right hippocampus and the nodal efficiency of hippocampus-related structures
.
Furthermore, the researchers used gray and white matter network superposition and decoding analysis and spatial correlation analysis to reveal the specific preservation of frontal lobe brain structure in the SCA group and the specific damage to temporal lobe brain structure in the MCI group, and proposed the "frontal lobe preservation and temporal lobe damage (FPTI)" hypothesis
.

Success and pathological cognitive aging of the "frontal lobe preservation, temporal lobe damage (FPTI)" hypothesis

The results show that the basis of brain structure in SCA population not only includes the maintenance of aging-sensitive structures such as the hippocampus, but also specifically reflects the morphological and network connection mode advantages of key structures in the frontal lobe, which is in stark contrast
to the temporal lobe-centered brain structure decline pattern in pathological cognitive aging groups such as MCI patients.
This result suggests that cognitive aging as a spectrum of strong heterogeneity is not only the negative side of cognitive impairment, through the study of the internal mechanism of SCA, we will better understand the reserve, retention and adaptation process of the brain in the aging process, and then explore a beneficial way to maintain a good cognitive state in the old age, and promote the realization
of active aging and successful aging of the whole society.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the BABRI research team at Beijing Normal University
.
Assistant researcher Yiru Yang of the School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Qilu Medical College of Shandong University, is the first author of the paper, and Professor Zhang Zhanjun and Associate Professor Yaojing Chen of the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning of Beijing Normal University are the corresponding authors
of the paper.
The research was supported
by the Science and Technology Innovation 2030-Major Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China Key Project, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China International (Regional) Cooperation and Exchange Program.

For more information about the study, please visit the journal's official website to read the original article
.
[Click on the link below or "Read Original"].

Yiru Yang, Yaojing Chen, Feng Sang, et al.
Successful or pathological cognitive aging? converging into a “frontal preservation, temporal impairment (FPTI)” hypothesis, Science Bulletin 2022.
https://doi.
org/10.
1016/j.
scib.
2022.
11.
004

Related work published by the BABRI team:

Yang C, Li X, Zhang J, et al.
Early prevention of cognitive impairment in the community population: the Beijing Aging Brain Rejuvenation Initiative.
 Alzheimers & Dementia, 2021, 17: 1610-1618

Yang Y, Chen Y, Yang C, et al.
Contributions of early-life cognitive reserve and late-life leisure activity to successful and pathological cognitive aging.
 BMC Geriatrics, 2022, 22: 831