When the time is right: Temporal dynamics of brain activity in healthy aging and dementia Courtney, S.M.1,2,3, & Hinault, T.1,4 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA 2F.M. Kirby Research Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute, MD 21205, USA 3Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, MD 21205, USA 4U1077 INSERM-EPHE-UNICAEN, Caen, FRANCE Corresponding author: Thomas Hinault INSERM-EPHE-UNICAEN U1077, Neuropsychology and Imaging of Human Memory 2, rue des Rochambelles, 14032 Caen, FRANCE. Email:
[email protected] Declarations of interest: none 1 1. Introduction A central question in cognitive aging research is how the evolution of cognitive functions with age is underpinned by changes of both brain structural characteristics and functional activity patterns. Neuroimaging studies revealed major findings associated with the effects of healthy aging on cognition, the impact of neurodegenerative disease, and variations between individuals. With aging, the brain undergoes several structural and functional changes (see Spreng & Turner, 2019, for a review). Brain structure consistently shows signs of grey matter atrophy and decreases in the microstructural integrity of white matter tracts connecting brain regions. Cortical activity, however, has been observed to either increase or decrease with age, depending on several task and population factors, suggesting either compensation, pathological under- or over-activation, or all of these (see Cabeza et al 2018; Stern et al.,