Evaluation of Brain Network Changes for Normal Brain Aging by the Resting-State Functional Connectivity

Studying the resting-state functional connectivity of healthy adults at various ages can offer insight into the natural aging of the brain and identify underlying factors that may contribute to neurocognitive decline. In our study, a cohort of 251 healthy adults who were subjected to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was enrolled and divided into respectively the youth group (N = 157, 19–30 years) and the elderly group (N = 94, 60–80 years). During our experiment, brain network group mapping was first used to extract time series and then construct a resting-state functional connectivity matrix for each subject. The dissimilarities in functional connectivity between the two cohorts were examined utilizing the Network-Based Statistic (NBS) approach, employing two-sample t-tests with adjustments made for multiple comparisons. Ultimately, there were 616 functional connections that showed notable distinctions between the two groups. The exploration of brain network changes in normal brain aging based on resting-state functional connectivity could unveil the functional mechanism of functional connectivity changes for brain aging.