Midlife modulation of task switching brain activity reveals age specific neural adaptation
Journal
Scientific Reports
Series/Report No.
Scientific Reports
Journal Volume
16
Journal Issue
1
Start Page
Article number 9735
ISSN
2045-2322
Date Issued
2026-02-18
Author(s)
Abstract
Task-switching ability, a core component of cognitive flexibility, begins to decline in midlife, yet the underlying neural adaptations during this stage remain unclear. This study investigated task-switching-related brain activation throughout adulthood, focusing on middle-aged adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Ninety healthy adults─30 each in young (YA), middle-aged (MA), and older (OA) groups─performed a modified Stroop task during fMRI. Behavioral outcomes included reaction time, error rate (ER), and ER switch cost. Whole-brain and region-of-interest analyses assessed frontoparietal modulation across age groups. The MA group exhibited lower ER switch cost than OA ( = 0.036), suggesting better task-switching accuracy. While parietal activity upregulation from non-switch to switch conditions was greater in MA than OA ( = 0.010–0.017), it was not significantly performance-related. Notably, within MA, greater left inferior prefrontal upregulation from non-switch to switch conditions was associated with lower ER in switch trials ( = − 0.569, = 0.002, = 0.020). A marginal association was found for the left middle prefrontal region. These findings suggest that middle-aged adults engage prefrontal upregulation to support task accuracy. Midlife may represent a critical window for neural adaptation, emphasizing its relevance in cognitive aging research and intervention strategies.
Subjects
Cognitive aging
Cognitive flexibility
Compensatory activation
Middle-aged
fMRI
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Type
journal article