ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Age-related variations of the hemodynamic response function spatially resolved across human cerebral cortex
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
- 2University of St. Thomas, Houston, United States
- 3Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Normal aging leads to regional vascular and neural alterations. Age-related impairments in neurovascular coupling (NVC) affect the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) hemodynamic response function (HRF) measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, causing changes in both amplitude and temporal dynamics. Previously, global, systematic age-related changes in HRF characteristics were demonstrated, consistent with known microvascular aging effects. In this follow-up study, a standard space was used to compare spatially resolved cortical HRF dynamics between sex-balanced groups of young and older adults. The results showed substantial age-related differences in both HRF amplitude and timing across distinct cortical regions. Nearly twice as much cortical area exhibited age-related alterations in amplitude compared with timing parameters, although the spatial patterns of these effects partially overlapped. Regional HRF changes aligned with known spatial patterns of vascular aging. Overall, the findings indicate that normal aging strongly affects NVC, particularly in areas supplied by major cerebral arteries and their watershed regions.
Keywords: Aging, cerebral blood flow, Cerebral Cortex, functional magnetic resonance imaging, hemodynamic response function
Received: 24 Dec 2025; Accepted: 05 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 J. Fesharaki, Taylor and Ress. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: David Ress
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.