Structural and functional brain connectivity for executive control over action in aging

One hallmark of aging is a motor functioning decline that represents a crucial impediment for healthy and active living. A candidate mechanism for this motor decline in older adults is an agerelated deterioration of higher cognitive (‘executive’) functions and their involvement in motor control. Specifically, older adults have been demonstrated to rely on executive functions to a larger extent than young adults when performing complex motor tasks. However, executive functions span multiple facets, and it is unclear which aspects of executive functioning are particularly crucial for successful motor control in older adults. During aging, the brain also undergoes profound changes with regard to the information exchange among distinct brain areas. These network alterations likely contribute to difficulties in motor performance in older adults, possibly by negatively affecting the efficiency with which executive functions guide motor actions. The purpose of this project is to provide a detailed characterization of the involvement of executive functions in age-related motor decline, and to investigate the neural basis of age-related motor and executive decline, both on the level of functional and structural brain connectivity. To this end, this interdisciplinary project combines motor and neuropsychological assessments with multimodal neuroimaging techniques. It will shed new light on the complex interactions between brain connectivity and behavior during aging.