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Journal Article

Functional locus coeruleus imaging to investigate an ageing noradrenergic system

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Lüsebrink,  Falk
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany;
Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany;
Methods and Development Group Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;

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Weiskopf,  Nikolaus       
Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, United Kingdom;
Department Neurophysics (Weiskopf), MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Felix Bloch Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Leipzig, Germany;

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Ludwig_2024.pdf
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Ludwig_2024_Suppl.pdf
(Supplementary material), 2MB

Citation

Ludwig, M., Yi, Y.-J., Lüsebrink, F., Callaghan, M. F., Betts, M. J., Yakupov, R., et al. (2024). Functional locus coeruleus imaging to investigate an ageing noradrenergic system. Communications Biology, 7(1): 777. doi:10.1038/s42003-024-06446-5.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000F-8A4E-F
Abstract
The locus coeruleus (LC), our main source of norepinephrine (NE) in the brain, declines with age and is a potential epicentre of protein pathologies in neurodegenerative diseases (ND). In vivo measurements of LC integrity and function are potentially important biomarkers for healthy ageing and early ND onset. In the present study, high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI), a reversal reinforcement learning task, and dedicated post-processing approaches were used to visualise age differences in LC function (N = 50). Increased LC responses were observed during emotionally and task-related salient events, with subsequent accelerations and decelerations in reaction times, respectively, indicating context-specific adaptive engagement of the LC. Moreover, older adults exhibited increased LC activation compared to younger adults, indicating possible compensatory overactivation of a structurally declining LC in ageing. Our study shows that assessment of LC function is a promising biomarker of cognitive aging.