Cerebello-basal ganglia networks and behavior across adulthood and aging

Cerebello-basal ganglia network connectivity shows higher functional connectivity in early middle age than older adulthood, with stronger connectivity–Stroop associations in early middle-aged adults.

• Why it matters: The CB-BG circuit may help explain how the brain ages, yet prior evidence came from small samples and its links to cognition, reward, and motor decline remain limited.
• What they did: In 138 participants aged 35–86, resting-state fcMRI (26 minutes) was analyzed with the CONN toolbox using an ROI-ROI approach targeting CB-BG cognitive and motor subcircuits.
• The result: Connectivity was linked to age group, sex (higher in females than males), progesterone in females, and Stroop task performance, replicating previously mapped cognitive and motor CB-BG subcircuits.