Structure-Function Dynamics in Healthy Cognitive Aging: A Graph Signal Processing Approach

Abstract

Network neuroscience has significantly advanced our understanding of how structural and functional connectivity evolve during healthy neurocognitive aging. Yet, integrative studies linking structural and functional brain organization with cognitive performance remain relatively limited. In this study, we analyzed resting-state functional MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging data from 600 healthy adults aged 18 to 88, drawn from the CamCAN dataset. Using a graph signal processing framework, we investigated how structural connectivity constrains functional brain signals across the adult lifespan. Our results reveal that control and semantic cognitive systems exhibit distinct age-related patterns of structure-function reorganization, potentially reflecting a shift in integrative processing during midlife. Notably, our findings suggest that structurally-coupled sensorimotor integration plays a crucial role for regulating these systems. Until midlife, it accompanies structurally-decoupled activity in transmodal cortices to sustain cognitive control. In parallel, it likely supports the formation of embodied internal models that leverage more structurally-decoupled semantic processes, thus contributing to maintain lexical production skills for longer in older adulthood. Taken together, our study offer new multimodal insights into how sensory-driven processes help reconfigure the healthy aging brain to support controlled semantic cognition.