Structure-function coupling of large-scale cortical networks across the lifespan is spectrally specific.

Abstract

With the advent of large-scale neuroimaging datasets, expansive lifespan studies are making novel discoveries about foundational principles of human brain development and aging. In one of the largest lifespan magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies of its kind (N = 388, age 6-84 years), we document age-related coupling between local rhythmic neural activity and cortical thickness using cutting-edge analyses of whole-brain structure-function coupling. This work establishes normative linear and non-linear age-related changes that fluctuate in spectrally specific patterns and that follow a hierarchical cortical gradient from sensory to association networks. Moreover, these results demonstrate that canonical spectral bands tend to display strong lifespan coupling to structure in sensorimotor networks and diminished, more variable coupling in association networks with age. This reinforces accounts of less phylogenetic conservation of association networks due to their relative evolutionary novelty, with sensorimotor networks being more strictly conserved. The addition of spectral signatures to this account also reveals that dominant, spectrally specific oscillations (i.e., delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma) emanating from local neural assemblies follow a hierarchical structure. Taken together, this landmark study provides a dynamic view of how age-related reorganization of large-scale networks unfolds across the human lifespan through structure-function coupling in a spectrally specific and hierarchically organized manner.