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Background: Cognitive impairments occur on a continuous spectrum in multiple cognitive domains showing individual variability of the deteriorating patterns; however, often, cognitive domains are studied separately. Methods: The present study investigated aging individual variations of cognitive abilities and related resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) using data-driven approach. Cognitive and neuroimaging data were obtained from 62 elderly outpatients with cognitive decline. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on the cognitive data to determine patterns of cognitive performance, then data-driven whole-brain connectome multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was applied on the neuroimaging data to discover neural regions associated with the cognitive characteristic. Results: The first component (PC1) delineated an overall decline in all domains of cognition, and the second component (PC2) represented a compensatory relationship within basic cognitive functions. MVPA indicated rsFC of the cerebellum lobule VIII and insula with the default-mode network, frontoparietal network, and salience network inversely correlated with PC1 scores. Additionally, PC2 score was related to rsFC patterns with temporal pole and occipital cortex. Conclusions: The featured primary cognitive characteristic depicted the importance of the cerebellum and insula connectivity patterns in of the general cognitive decline. The findings also discovered a secondary characteristic that communicated impaired interactions within the basic cognitive function, which was independent from the impairment severity.

Background: Older adults are vulnerable to comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms; however, these conditions are widely underrecognized and often untreated. Understanding their combined manifestation using objective measurements, such as clinician-rated scales and heart rate variability (HRV), can help refine the diagnosis and select a treatment strategy for geriatric patients. Methods: This study included patients over 65 years who were mainly diagnosed with either category of depressive or anxiety disorders from the psychiatric outpatient clinic in a university hospital. A total of 114 patients met eligibility with a completed collection of electrocardiograms, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS; clinician-rated depression), and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS; clinician-rated anxiety) to assess the severity of symptoms. Both main and interaction effects between HDRS and HAS on HRV parameters were examined. Results: Significant interaction effects between clinician-rated depression and anxiety (HDRS × HAS) on HRV reduction in frequency parameters (i.e., nuLF, nuHF, LF/HF ratio) were found, which consistently indicated autonomic nervous system dysregulation. Findings imply that HRV could reflect synergistic effects of comorbid depressive and anxiety symptoms, perhaps due to the amplification of individual symptoms in geriatric patients. Conclusions: The results imply that using objective measurements can improve diagnostic accuracy, particularly in geriatric patients with comorbid status, and the normalization of the autonomic nervous system might be a candidate target for prevention and treatment.

Self-respect is a practical way to promote life satisfaction through gratifying basic psychological needs, whereas self-criticism is associated with life dissatisfaction. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of two positive and negative self-talks on the functional connectome with respect to life satisfaction and its relationships with basic psychological needs. Forty-eight individuals with low life satisfaction (LLS, n ​= ​24) and with high life satisfaction (HLS, n ​= ​24) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging at a baseline state and during and after self-respect or self-criticism tasks. Functional connectivity analysis was conducted to identify the modulatory effects of the tasks on the self-referential, default mode, and reward-motivation networks. We found that self-respect changed only the connection between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and frontoparietal network, whereas self-criticism changed almost all of the connections examined. The group x condition interaction effect of self-respect was identified only in connection between the PCC and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, while that of self-criticism was observed in various connections based on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. In respect to basic psychological needs, functional connectivity after self-criticism was significant in predicting the needs of autonomy and relatedness only in the LLS group, whereas functional connectivity after self-respect could predict the needs of autonomy and competence only in the HLS group. Overall, self-criticism produces more noticeable negative changes in the brain than the positive changes of self-respect. Individuals with low life satisfaction may be more vulnerable to be negatively affected not only by self-criticism but also self-respect than individuals with high life satisfaction. The satisfaction of basic psychological needs can play a mediating role in the effects of self-talk tasks differently concerning life satisfaction.