The Brain Ages Optimally to Model Its Environment: Evidence from Sensory Learning over the Adult Lifespan
Open accessAbstract
The aging brain shows a progressive loss of neuropil, which is accompanied by subtle changes in neuronal plasticity, sensory learning and memory. Neurophysiologically, aging attenuates evoked responses--including the mismatch negativity (MMN). This is accompanied by a shift in cortical responsivity from sensory (posterior) regions to executive (anterior) regions, which has been interpreted as a compensatory response for cognitive decline. Theoretical neurobiology offers a simpler explanation for all of these effects--from a Bayesian perspective, as the brain is progressively optimized to model its world, its complexity will decrease. A corollary of this complexity reduction is an attenuation of Bayesian updating or sensory learning. Here we confirmed this hypothesis using magnetoencephalographic recordings of the mismatch negativity elicited in a large cohort of human subjects, in their third to ninth decade. Employing dynamic causal modeling to assay the synaptic mechanisms underlying these non-invasive recordings, we found a selective age-related attenuation of synaptic connectivity changes that underpin rapid sensory learning. In contrast, baseline synaptic connectivity strengths were consistently strong over the decades. Our findings suggest that the lifetime accrual of sensory experience optimizes functional brain architectures to enable efficient and generalizable predictions of the world.
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Visual information can reach the primary visual cortex as early as ~60 ms after stimulus onset.
“The 60-ms lower bound reflects previous findings that visual information can reach the primary visual cortex as early as ~60 ms after stimulus onset68.”
From Deviations in effective connectivity explain different hallucination subtypes in Parkinson's disease psychosis (2026) · cites this paper as [68]
The Methods (Dynamic Causal Modeling; page unavailable) specify a 64-ms prior onset for auditory input to Heschl’s gyrus, not visual input to primary visual cortex. The Results (Dynamic Causal Modeling of Sensory Evoked Responses; page unavailable) likewise concern auditory tones. Searches for visual-cortex responses and a 60-ms visual onset found no passage addressing the claim. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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“The 60-ms lower bound reflects previous findings that visual information can reach the primary visual cortex as early as ~60 ms after stimulus onset 68 .”
- Authors
- Moran, R. J., Symmonds, M., Dolan, R. J., & Friston, K. J.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Moran, Rosalyn J.
- Venue
- PLoS Computational Biology
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-01-23
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e1003422
- ISSN
- 1553-734X (ISSN-L)
- 1553-7358
- PMC
- PMC3900375
- OpenAlex
- W2086508845
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 5.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS Computational Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 091593/Z/10/, 098362, 098362/Z/12/Z, 091593/Z/10/Z, 088130, 098362/Z/12/)
- Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS-SGCL9-Symmonds)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- brain aging, mismatch negativity, sensory learning, Bayesian brain, synaptic connectivity, dynamic causal modeling, evoked potentials, cognitive decline, complexity reduction, adult lifespan, magnetoencephalography
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Algorithms, Auditory Cortex, Bayes Theorem, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Theoretical, Neuronal Plasticity, Neurons, Reproducibility of Results, Magnetoencephalography, Cohort Studies, Young Adult
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