Shared brain network response change with naturalistic social content and support recall in adults
Poster No:
1147
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Eric Kwun Kei Ng1, Wan Lin Yue1, Janice Jue Xin Koi1, Joey Ju Yu Wong1, Xiaoqian Li2, W. Quin Yow2, Juan Helen Zhou1
Institutions:
1National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, 2Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Theory of mind (ToM), a key social cognitive ability, may decline and adversely influence older adults [1,2]. Naturalistic paradigms show promise to study social cognition with better ecological validity and sensitivity to age-related differences [3], but few studies have adapted it to study ToM at older age. We examined inter-subject correlation (ISC) [5], a measure of between-subject brain response synchrony to a common stimulus and shown to be sensitive to differences in mental states [6], when participants watched a socio-affective movie. We expected 1) ISC to be higher during moments with higher ToM requirement, lower in older adults, with possible interaction such that age groups differed more during higher ToM requirement; 2) effects to be stronger in default mode network; 3) higher ISC to be associated with better recall.
Methods:
44 young (27 F, mean 22 yrs) and 46 older adults (34 F, mean 63.3 yrs) were scanned when watching a short movie about a family in local Singaporean context [11]. They then completed a recall task comprising 9 factual and 18 ToM multiple-choice questions from 9 major scenes.
FMRI data (3T Siemens Prisma(-Fit); TR 720ms, 2.5mm isotropic) were preprocessed with an in-house pipeline. Time series extracted from 430 regional [4] were split into ToM (N=56) and non-ToM (N=74) segments based on timestamps manually demarcated by 3 researchers and hemodynamic response delay (6s), followed by concatenation into a ToM (402 TRs, 5mins) and non-ToM (488 TRs, 6mins) time series per participant.
Regional ISC [5] was computed separately for each age group and ToM event type by correlating the time series of each participant with the mean time series averaged across all other participants in the group (Fisher's Z, Pearson). Regions were then averaged as per functional network assignment, yielding 2 event type x (9 cortical + 3 subcortical) network-level ISC measures per participant.
Network ISCs were subject to linear mixed models, with age group, ToM event type, and their interaction as variables of interest, and gender, scanner, and mean relative motion as covariates. Multiple comparisons in network analyses and post-hoc analyses were Bonferroni-adjusted. For networks showing statistically significant age-group ISC effects, partial Spearman's correlations were computed between ISC and recall scores within each age group and event type, controlling for age, gender, scanner, education, and mean relative motion.
FMRI data (3T Siemens Prisma(-Fit); TR 720ms, 2.5mm isotropic) were preprocessed with an in-house pipeline. Time series extracted from 430 regional [4] were split into ToM (N=56) and non-ToM (N=74) segments based on timestamps manually demarcated by 3 researchers and hemodynamic response delay (6s), followed by concatenation into a ToM (402 TRs, 5mins) and non-ToM (488 TRs, 6mins) time series per participant.
Regional ISC [5] was computed separately for each age group and ToM event type by correlating the time series of each participant with the mean time series averaged across all other participants in the group (Fisher's Z, Pearson). Regions were then averaged as per functional network assignment, yielding 2 event type x (9 cortical + 3 subcortical) network-level ISC measures per participant.
Network ISCs were subject to linear mixed models, with age group, ToM event type, and their interaction as variables of interest, and gender, scanner, and mean relative motion as covariates. Multiple comparisons in network analyses and post-hoc analyses were Bonferroni-adjusted. For networks showing statistically significant age-group ISC effects, partial Spearman's correlations were computed between ISC and recall scores within each age group and event type, controlling for age, gender, scanner, education, and mean relative motion.
Results:
ISC was higher during ToM than non-ToM moments in most networks (ps<.004). Contrary to past findings [10], older adults tended to have higher ISC in cortical networks than young adults (ps=.025-.07 uncorrected). Age Group x Event Type interactions (Fig 1) were observed in default mode network (DMN) and salience-ventral-attention network (SN-VAN). ISC for ToM events was higher than non-ToM events in young adults (p<.001 and .008, respectively), but they were comparable in older adults. Non-ToM ISC was also higher in older than young adults (p=.052 and <.001, respectively). Higher ISC in these networks was associated with better recall for ToM moments in both groups (ps<.001; Fig 2).
Conclusions:
Our results echoed past findings of higher neural synchrony when processing others' mental states [6]; higher ISC in older adults may be due to stimulus choice but requires further examination. Interestingly, ISC enhancement was less among older adults than young adults in the DMN (internal state representations and narrative comprehension) and SN-VAN (selective attention and regulating DMN activity). Their inclusion suggested that older adults may become less selective to the need of (or lack thereof) processing social elements, due to lower social cognitive ability or altered socioemotional preferences [7]. Positive ISC-recall association supported the hypothesis of an 'optimal way' of information processing among age-matched peers [8], with deviations reflecting idiosyncrasy in perspective taking and situational interpretation [9].
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Cognition 2
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Higher Cognitive Functions Other
Lifespan Development:
Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Other Methods
Keywords:
Aging
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Other - Mentalizing; Theory of Mind, Naturalistic movie stimulus; intersubject correlation
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
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