Research Paper Volume 18
Age-specific relationship between the modulation of brain dynamics in response to task demands and bimanual performance
- 1 Neuroplasticity and Movement Control Research Group, Rehabilitation Research Institute (REVAL), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, 3590 Limburg, Belgium
- 2 Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, 3001 Flemish Brabant, Belgium
- 3 Leuven Brain Institute (LBI), KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000 Flemish Brabant, Belgium
- 4 Medical Imaging Research Center, UZ Leuven, Leuven, 3000 Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Received: July 4, 2025 Accepted: February 13, 2026 Published: March 24, 2026
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206363How to Cite
Copyright: © 2026 Ferreira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
While prior research has largely focused on mean Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) activation to understand age-related differences in bimanual coordination, BOLD variability - a metric that captures fluctuations in brain activity -, has been overlooked. Hence, the current study examined how age affects BOLD variability, specifically BOLD standard deviation (BOLD SD), and its modulation with task demands during a bimanual task. Twenty-two younger and twenty-three older adults performed three task conditions of increasing complexity while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Older adults exhibited higher BOLD SD in cerebellar lobule VIIIb and greater modulation across task conditions in both sensorimotor and cerebellar regions. Modulation of BOLD variability predicted task performance in an age- and region-dependent manner: in younger adults, reduced modulation in sensorimotor and visuospatial areas correlated with better performance, whereas in older adults, increased modulation in the inferior and superior parietal lobules was linked to higher performance. Across groups, better outcomes were predicted by greater modulation in the middle occipital gyrus but less in the cerebellar Crus I. These findings underscore an age-related shift in the neural dynamics underpinning motor adaptability with aging, pointing to increased BOLD variability modulation as a potential marker of compensatory reorganization in late adulthood.
Abbreviations
A2: Area 2 (primary somatosensory cortex); A6dl: Dorsolateral area 6 (dorsolateral premotor cortex; PMd); A7m: Medial area 7 (Precuneus); A7r: Rostral area 7 (Superior parietal lobe); A40rd: Rostrodorsal area 40 (inferior parietal lobe); ANOVA: Analysis of Variance; ART: Aligned Rank Transform; BBR: Boundary-Based Registration; BDI-II: Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition; BH: Benjamini-Hochberg; BOLD: Blood-Oxygen-Level Dependent; BTT: Bimanual Tracking Task; CI: Confidence Interval; CSF: Cerebrospinal Fluid; Crus I: Cerebellar lobule Crus I; DenDF: Denominator Degrees of Freedom; DVARS: Derivative of RMS variance over voxels; EHI LQ: Edinburgh Handedness Inventory - Lateralization Quotient; EPI: Echo Planar Imaging; FD: Framewise Displacement; fMRI: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; FOV: Field of View; FDR: False Discovery Rate; FSL: FMRIB Software Library; FWHM: Full Width at Half Maximum; GDS-15: Geriatric Depression Scale - 15 Items; GM: Gray Matter; iOccG: Inferior Occipital Gyrus; IsOccG: Inferior Superior Occipital Gyrus; IQR: Interquartile Range; LH: Left Hemisphere; LMM: Linear Mixed Model; lsOccG: Lateral Superior Occipital Gyrus; mOccG: Middle Occipital Gyrus; MoCA: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; MR: Magnetic Resonance; MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; MRS: Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; MPRAGE: Magnetization Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo; N/A: Not Applicable; NumDF: Numerator Degrees of Freedom; OA: Older Adults; OPC: Occipital Polar Cortex; Q-Q: Plot Quantile-Quantile Plot; RH: Right Hemisphere; ROI: Region of Interest; rs-fMRI: Resting-State Functional MRI; SD: Standard Deviation; T1w: T1-weighted; TE: Echo Time; TR: Repetition Time; VarTbx: Variability Toolbox; V5/MT+: Motion-sensitive visual area; VI: Cerebellar lobule VI; VIIb: Cerebellar lobule VIIb; VIIIb: Cerebellar lobule VIIIb; WM: White Matter; YA: Younger Adults.