Language Network Shows Few Age Differences in MIT-Brain Study
An MIT-Boston University brain-imaging study found that language-network activity was nearly identical in adults ages 17 to 39 and 41 to 80. The same participants showed age-related differences in the multiple demand network, which supports executive functions such as working memory, attention, and decision-making. The study did not directly test language ability.
Brain activity linked to language processing showed little difference between younger and older adults in a new MIT-Boston University study, even as a separate network associated with executive control displayed several age-related changes.
The research, published in Nature Communications and reported by MIT News, compared adults ages 17 to 39 with adults ages 41 to 80. Participants completed tasks designed to activate either the language network or the multiple demand network, a system involved in functions such as spatial memory, decision-making, and cognitive control.
During language tasks, participants listened to stories and read sentences. The researchers found similar levels and spatial patterns of activity in the language network across the two age groups. Older and younger participants also showed comparable responses when they encountered unfamiliar words or unusual grammatical constructions—linguistic features that can increase activity in language-related brain regions.
The study also found no evidence that the language network became less synchronized with age. Nor did it appear to blur together with the multiple demand network, an idea that some researchers had proposed as a possible consequence of aging.
The contrast was pronounced during a spatial memory task involving the locations of squares on a grid. In older adults, the multiple demand network was smaller, less synchronized, and less strongly activated than in younger participants. Researchers said the executive-control system showed age-related decline across nearly all of the measures they examined.
The findings support a distinction between brain systems specialized for particular functions and more flexible systems used across many types of tasks. Evelina Fedorenko, an MIT associate professor and senior author, said the multiple demand network does not accumulate knowledge over time in the way language-related abilities can; instead, it functions as a flexible resource for learning and adapting.
The research helps explain why language-related behavior can remain stable during healthy aging, according to the researchers. However, the study itself measured brain activity rather than language performance. MIT News noted that other research has found language skills can remain stable or improve in older age, potentially reflecting continued growth in vocabulary and reading experience, but those behavioral findings were not established by this experiment.
The study was led by Anne Billot, now a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, and former MIT research assistant Niharika Jhingan. Fedorenko and Swathi Kiran of Boston University were senior co-authors. Funding came from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and several MIT research centers.
Reporting Note
Biohack Report distinguishes preliminary findings, clinical evidence and commercial claims whenever the available reporting supports that distinction. Coverage is informational and is not medical advice.