Affiliations: Kliniken Schmieder Allensbach, Allensbach,
Germany | Department of Neurology, University Medical Center
Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany | Department of Neurology and Neuroimage Nord,
University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck, Germany | Department of Neurology, University of Magdeburg,
Magdeburg, Germany | Kliniken Schmieder Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany | Leibniz Institut für Neurobiologie, Magdeburg,
Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Christian Dettmers, Kliniken
Schmieder Konstanz, Eichhornstr. 68, 78464 Konstanz, Germany. Tel.: +49 7531
986 3536; Fax: +49 7531 986 3155; E-mail: c.dettmers@kliniken-schmieder.de
Abstract: Purpose: Recent studies have found age-related BOLD signal changes
in several areas of the human brain. We investigated whether such changes also
occur in brain areas involved in the processing of motor action observation and
imagery. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging with an
experimental paradigm in which motor acts had to be observed and/or imagined
from a first person perspective was performed in twenty-six subjects. Results: In line with previous work action observation and imagery induced
BOLD signal increases in similar areas, predominantly in the premotor and
parietal cortex. In contrast to young subjects the elderly displayed a stronger
activity in most activated brain areas indicative of compensatory activity for
the age-related decline of neural structures. Importantly, activity in the
ventrolateral premotor cortex and inferior parietal cortex, seminal areas of
the mirror neuron system, did not exhibit activity changes as a function of
age. Conclusion: These findings suggest that activity within the mirror
neuron system is not age dependent and provide a neural basis for therapeutical
interventions and novel rehabilitation treatments such as video therapy.
