中国科学院心理健康重点实验室知识库

老年人大脑结构和功能衰退是其认知功能下降的重要原因。然而,老年人的大脑仍然保持了一定的可塑性。随着神经影像技术的发展,大量研究发现认知训练能够对老年人的大脑结构和功能产生积极影响:(1)在脑结构方面,表现为大脑皮层灰质体积增加、白质神经纤维连接增强;(2)在进行认知任务时,表现为脑功能网络发生重组;(3)在静息态脑功能方面,表现为脑自发活动功能性重组以及功能连接增强。未来的认知训练研究需要考察老年人大脑可塑性存在个体差异的多种影响因素,并通过纵向追踪研究来探讨大脑可塑性的保持性和迁移效应。

Healthy aging is associated with cognitive impairment, which generally attributed to declines in brain structure and functioning. However, the aging brain retains structural and functional plasticity. With the development of neuroimaging technologies, a large number of brain imaging studies have confirmed that cognitive training positively impacts brain structure and functioning. After training, the aged individuals show: (1) increased structural gray matter volume and integrity of white matter tracts; (2) functional reorganization of brain network when performing cognitive tasks; (3) functional reorganization in intrinsic brain activity and enhancement functional connectivity during resting state. Further studies of cognitive training are required to investigate various factors that influence individual differences of brain plasticity and determine the lasting effects and transfer effects by using longitudinal studies.