Distinct neural activation pattern of age on subcomponents of inhibitory control: a fMRI meta-analysis

Abstract Inhibitory control (IC) is a fundamental cognitive function showing age-related change across the healthy lifespan. Since different cognitive load of two subcomponents of IC was existed, that is cognitive inhibition and response inhibition, there are regions differentially activated during two subcomponents of IC. In this study, we aimed to characterize whether there is distinct age-related activation pattern in these two subcomponents. A total of 278 fMRI articles were included in the current analysis. Multilevel kernel density analysis was used to derive the brain activation under each subcomponent of IC. Contrast analyses were conducted to capture the distinct activated brain regions for two subcomponents and meta-regression analyses were performed to obtain brain regions with distinct age-related activation patterns in two subcomponents of IC. The results showed that the right inferior frontal gyrus and the bilateral insula were activated during two IC subcomponents. Contrast analyses revealed stronger activation in the superior parietal lobule during cognitive inhibition, whereas greater activation was observed during response inhibition primarily in the right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral insula and angular gyrus. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that activation of the left anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral insula, and left superior parietal lobule increased and decreased with age during cognitive inhibition and response inhibition, respectively. Results showed distinct activation patterns of aging for the two subcomponents of IC, which may be related to the differential cognitive loads of the two subcomponents of IC. These findings may help to enhance our knowledge of age-related changes in activation patterns of IC.