Network-specific differences in transient brain activity at rest are associated with age-related reductions in motor performance.

Multiple functional changes occur in the brain with increasing age. Among those, older adults typically display more restricted fluctuations of brain activity, both during resting-state and task execution. These altered dynamic patterns have been linked to reduced task performance across multiple behavioral domains. Windowed functional connectivity, which is typically employed in the study of connectivity dynamics, however, might not be able to properly characterize moment-to-moment variations of individual networks. In the present study, we used innovation-driven co-activation patterns (ICAP) to overcome this limitation and investigate the length (duration) and frequency (innovation) in which various brain networks emerged across the adult lifespan (N= 92) during a resting-state period. We identified a link between increasing age and a tendency to engage brain areas with distinct functional associations simultaneously as a single network. The emergence of isolated and spatially well-defined visual, motor, frontoparietal, and posterior networks decreased with increased age. This reduction in dynamics of specialized networks mediated age-related performance decreases (i.e., increases in interlimb interference) in a bimanual motor task. Altogether, our findings demonstrated that older compared to younger adults tend to activate fewer network configurations, which include multiple functionally distinct brain areas. The reduction in independent emergence of functionally well-defined and task-relevant networks may reflect an expression of brain dedifferentiation and is likely associated with functional modulatory deficits, negatively impacting motor behavior.

[Favorite food and influences on food preferences of kindergarten children]. / Lieblingsspeisen und Einflüsse auf die Nahrungspräferenzen von Kindergartenkindern.

This study was conducted by the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan on behalf of the Department of Education of the city of Munich. A total of 82 children as well as their parents and 23 kindergarten teachers in five Munich kindergartens were questioned about their food preferences, and their sociocultural data were gathered. The results showed that the nationality and the religion of the mother were fundamental to the origin and consolidation of the eating habits of the children. Other important und influencing factors were: the peer group and the teachers in the kindergarten, the father's job, the sex and the age of the children. When comparing the food preferences of the children and their role models, it was found that the preferences and aversions were more similar to those of their own mothers/teachers/members of the peer group than to those of children of other peer groups, other parents or other teachers.