Ageing reshapes the resting-state network landscape of the human brain
- 1Aarhus University
Abstract
Ageing alters brain rhythms and large-scale functional organisation, but whether these changes reflect isolated effects or a coordinated reconfiguration remains unclear. We applied Frequency-resolved Network Estimation via Source Separation (FREQ-NESS) to source-reconstructed resting-state MEG from 164 healthy younger and older adults across two independent datasets. FREQ-NESS revealed that ageing reshaped the frequency-resolved organisation of whole-brain networks. Older adults showed a slower alpha-network peak and a flatter decay of network prominence from alpha into beta frequencies, together with changes in entropy across the spectrum. These spectral changes were accompanied by shifts in the spatial expression of dominant networks along the lateral, posterior-anterior, and inferior-superior spatial axes. Rather than following a uniform anatomical shift, the direction of age differences varied across frequencies. Together, these findings show that healthy ageing is associated with a reshaped configuration of endogenous brain networks, characterised not simply by a uniform loss of network organisation, but by selective reconfiguration of the prominence and spatiotemporal expression of whole-brain activity across frequencies.
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BibTeX
@misc{kudriavtsev2026ageing,
title = {{Ageing reshapes the resting-state network landscape of the human brain}},
author = {N. Kudriavtsev and M. Rosso and G. Fernandez-Rubio and E. Serra and M. Houe Andersen and M. L. Kringelbach and P. Vuust and L. Bonetti},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.07.749858},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.07.749858v1},
note = {CC BY-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ageing reshapes the resting-state network landscape of the human brain
AU - N. Kudriavtsev
AU - M. Rosso
AU - G. Fernandez-Rubio
AU - E. Serra
AU - M. Houe Andersen
AU - M. L. Kringelbach
AU - P. Vuust
AU - L. Bonetti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/07
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.07.749858
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.07.749858v1
AB - Ageing alters brain rhythms and large-scale functional organisation, but whether these changes reflect isolated effects or a coordinated reconfiguration remains unclear. We applied Frequency-resolved Network Estimation via Source Separation (FREQ-NESS) to source-reconstructed resting-state MEG from 164 healthy younger and older adults across two independent datasets. FREQ-NESS revealed that ageing reshaped the frequency-resolved organisation of whole-brain networks. Older adults showed a slower alpha-network peak and a flatter decay of network prominence from alpha into beta frequencies, together with changes in entropy across the spectrum. These spectral changes were accompanied by shifts in the spatial expression of dominant networks along the lateral, posterior-anterior, and inferior-superior spatial axes. Rather than following a uniform anatomical shift, the direction of age differences varied across frequencies. Together, these findings show that healthy ageing is associated with a reshaped configuration of endogenous brain networks, characterised not simply by a uniform loss of network organisation, but by selective reconfiguration of the prominence and spatiotemporal expression of whole-brain activity across frequencies.
ER -