Abstract #2872

Age-Dependence of Hemodynamic Response Characteristics in Human FMRI

Claudine Jolle Gauthier¹,², Ccile Madjar³,⁴, Laurence Desjardins-Crpeau³,⁵, Pierre Bellec³,⁶, Louis Bherer,³⁷, Richard D. Hoge²

¹Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany; ²Physiology, CRIUGM/Universit de Montral, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ³CRIUGM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ⁴Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ⁵Psychology, UQAM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ⁶Computer Science and Operations Research, Universit de Montral, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ⁷Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The BOLD signal is often used as a direct index of neuronal activity to study changes with aging. However, profound changes in cerebrovascular properties in older adults may lead to biases in the interpretation of BOLD signal differences between young and old. Here we show that changes in baseline blood flow, reactivity to hypercapnia and calibration parameter M are present even in healthy aging. These changes may lead to underestimation of metabolic changes with aging.