Disrupted connectivity between the salience network and central executive networks in ageing

Abstract

• Recent work has attributed reduced cognitive abilities arising as a result of healthy ageing to brain disconnection. Understanding this disconnection is important since intact cognition is essential for successful functioning, including perception, attention and memory. • Two widely used methods for studying connectivity are Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) • An extension to ICA is to apply stochastic DCM to ICA time courses to study the connectivity between different brain networks • Previous work by Sridharan and colleagues (Sridharan et al., 2008) has suggested that the brain's salience network (SN) is responsible for switching between the default mode network (DMN), the network seen when the brain is at rest, and the central executive network (CEN) • We have previously replicated the work of Sridharan and colleagues in a young cohort and now investigate how this connectivity changes with ageing.