TY - JOUR
T1 - The reduction of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex gray matter volume correlates with loss of economic rationality in aging
AU - Chung, Hui Kuan
AU - Tymula, Agnieszka
AU - Glimcher, Paul
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 the authors.
PY - 2017/12/6
Y1 - 2017/12/6
N2 - The population of people above 65 years old continues to grow, and there is mounting evidence that as humans age they are more likely to make errors. However, the specific effect of neuroanatomical aging on the efficiency of economic decision-making is poorly understood. We used whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis to determine where reduction of gray matter volume in healthy female and male adults over the age of 65 years correlates with a classic measure of economic irrationality: violations of the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference. All participants were functionally normal with Mini-Mental State Examination scores ranging between 26 and 30. While our elders showed the previously reported decline in rationality compared with younger subjects, chronological age per se did not correlate with rationality measures within our population of elders. Instead, reduction of gray matter density in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex correlates tightly with irrational behavior. Interestingly, using a large fMRI sample and meta-analytic tool with Neurosynth, we found that this brain area shows strong coactivation patterns with nearly all of the value-associated regions identified in previous studies. These findings point toward a neuroanatomic locus for economic rationality in the aging brain and highlight the importance of understanding both anatomy and function in the study of aging, cognition, and decision-making.
AB - The population of people above 65 years old continues to grow, and there is mounting evidence that as humans age they are more likely to make errors. However, the specific effect of neuroanatomical aging on the efficiency of economic decision-making is poorly understood. We used whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis to determine where reduction of gray matter volume in healthy female and male adults over the age of 65 years correlates with a classic measure of economic irrationality: violations of the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference. All participants were functionally normal with Mini-Mental State Examination scores ranging between 26 and 30. While our elders showed the previously reported decline in rationality compared with younger subjects, chronological age per se did not correlate with rationality measures within our population of elders. Instead, reduction of gray matter density in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex correlates tightly with irrational behavior. Interestingly, using a large fMRI sample and meta-analytic tool with Neurosynth, we found that this brain area shows strong coactivation patterns with nearly all of the value-associated regions identified in previous studies. These findings point toward a neuroanatomic locus for economic rationality in the aging brain and highlight the importance of understanding both anatomy and function in the study of aging, cognition, and decision-making.
KW - Aging
KW - Brain structure
KW - Economic rationality
KW - Generalized axiom of revealed preference
KW - Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
KW - Voxel-based morphometry
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U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1171-17.2017
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1171-17.2017
M3 - Article
C2 - 28982708
AN - SCOPUS:85037643501
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 37
SP - 12068
EP - 12077
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 49
ER -