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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1486775
This article is part of the Research Topic Neuroimaging of the Aging Brain View all 10 articles
Cerebral pulsatility might be a driver of neurofunctional reorganization in the aging brain: An MRI and NIRS Study
Provisionally accepted- 1 Center for Research, Montreal Heart Institute, Montréal, Canada
- 2 University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States
- 3 Montreal University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 4 Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age-related increases in cerebral pulsatility are thought to stress the cerebral microcirculation, with effects that may vary across different brain regions. The aging brain also undergoes neurofunctional changes to preserve and in some cases enhance cognitive abilities. This study investigated the association between cerebral pulsatility and neurofunctional changes in aging. Sixty healthy adults were divided into two groups of younger (aged 19-31 years) and older adults (aged 62-75 years). Participants underwent near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging, including a resting-state recording to capture baseline cortical cerebral pulsatility index, followed by a Stroop task to assess cortical hemodynamic-evoked activity. Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) was also performed to measure pulsatility in the large arteries supplying the brain. Results indicated that older adults exhibited a significant interhemispheric difference in cerebral pulsatility index, with a higher index in the left hemisphere compared to the right. Among older adults, a greater interhemispheric difference in cerebral pulsatility index was associated with larger taskevoked oxyhemoglobin concentration changes in the right hemisphere and smaller changes in the left for the Stroop task. Younger adults, in contrast, showed no significant interhemispheric difference in pulsatility index, nor a significant correlation with task-evoked activations. These findings suggest that age-related changes in cerebral pulsatility might contribute to, or potentially drive, functional reorganization in the aging brain. Further investigation is needed to provide more insights to this finding.
Keywords: Cerebral pulsatility, Functional reorganization, aging brain, Stroop task, Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI)
Received: 26 Aug 2024; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mohammadi, Sirpal, Bherer, Lesage and Joanette. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hanieh Mohammadi, Center for Research, Montreal Heart Institute, Montréal, Canada
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