Metabolism modulates network synchrony in the aging brain

Brain aging is associated with hypometabolism and associated global changes in functional connectivity. Using fMRI, we show that network synchrony, a collective property of brain activity, decreases with age. Applying quantitative methods from statistical physics, we provide a generative (Ising) model for these changes as a function of the average communication strength between brain regions. In particular, we find healthy brains to be poised at a critical point of this communication strength, enabling a balance between segregated (to functional domains) and integrated (between domains) patterns of synchrony. However, one characteristic of criticality is a high sensitivity to small changes. Thus, minute weakening of pairwise communication between regions, as seen in the aging brain, gives rise to qualitatively abrupt changes in synchrony. Finally, by experimentally modulating metabolic activity in younger adults, we show how metabolism alone-independent of other changes associated with aging-can provide a mechanism for global changes in synchrony.