Exploring timescale-specific functional brain networks and their associations with aging and cognitive performance in a healthy cohort without dementia

Introduction: Functional brain networks (FBNs) coordinate brain functions and are studied in fMRI using blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal correlations. Previous research links FBN changes to aging and cognitive decline, but various physiological factors influnce BOLD signals. Few studies have investigated the intrinsic components of the BOLD signal in different timescales using signal decomposition. This study aimed to explore differences between intrinsic FBNs and traditional BOLD-FBN, examining their associations with age and cognitive performance in a healthy cohort without dementia. Materials and methods: A total of 396 healthy participants without dementia (men = 157; women = 239; age range = 20–85 years) were enrolled in this study. The BOLD signal was decomposed into several intrinsic signals with different timescales using ensemble empirical mode decomposition, and FBNs were constructed based on both the BOLD and intrinsic signals. Subsequently, network features—global efficiency and local efficiency values—were estimated to determine their relationship with age and cognitive performance. Results: The findings revealed that the global efficiency of traditional BOLD-FBN correlated significantly with age, with specific intrinsic FBNs contributing to these correlations. Moreover, local efficiency analysis demonstrated that intrinsic FBNs were more meaningful than traditional BOLD-FBN in identifying brain regions related to age and cognitive performance. Conclusions: These results underscore the importance of exploring timescales of BOLD signals when constructing FBN and highlight the relevance of specific intrinsic FBNs to aging and cognitive performance. Consequently, this decomposition-based FBN-building approach may offer valuable insights for future fMRI studies.