Manishika Balamurugan
Research Mentor(s): Thad Polk
Mentor Department: Psychology
Authors: Manishika Balamurugan, Thad Polk, Noah Reardon, Molly Simmonite, Mark Zuppichini, Violet Zhou, Kayla Wyatt, Bingjie Liu
Session: Session 6 (3:00pm – 3:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 76
Abstract
Age-related neural dedifferentiation refers to the finding that neural activation patterns in response to different stimuli are less distinctive in older vs. younger adults. This phenomenon has been linked to cognitive impairment, with people who exhibit greater dedifferentiation performing worse on a range of behavioral tasks. The majority of previous studies on neural dedifferentiation have been cross-sectional, comparing groups of younger adults and older adults. Previous research on dedifferentiation is also largely restricted to studying healthy participants. The Michigan Neural Distinctiveness (MiND) study aims to address these gaps by studying dedifferentiation longitudinally within the same older individuals as they age and by studying participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). All participants undergo a series of behavioral tasks that measure cognitive function, as well as functional MRI, MR spectroscopy, and diffusion weighted imaging. While this study is still ongoing, one identified factor that may contribute to cognitive decline is an age-related reduction in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Specifically, results suggest that GABA levels decline with age and are associated with neural dedifferentiation. The present study focuses on participants with an MCI diagnosis, comparing their GABA measures with those of healthy participants at a single point in time.
