TY  - JOUR
AU  - Liu, Peng
AU  - Doehler, Juliane
AU  - Henschke, Julia
AU  - Northall, Alicia
AU  - Knaf-Serian, Angela
AU  - Loaiza-Carvajal, Laura C
AU  - Budinger, Eike
AU  - Schwarzkopf, Dietrich S
AU  - Speck, Oliver
AU  - Pakan, Janelle M P
AU  - Kuehn, Esther
TI  - Layer-specific changes in sensory cortex across the lifespan in mice and humans.
JO  - Nature neuroscience
VL  - 28
IS  - 9
SN  - 1097-6256
CY  - New York, NY
PB  - Nature America
M1  - DZNE-2025-01071
SP  - 1978 - 1989
PY  - 2025
AB  - The segregation of processes into cortical layers is a convergent feature in animal evolution. However, how changes in the cortical layer architecture interact with sensory system function and dysfunction remains unclear. Here we conducted functional and structural layer-specific in vivo 7T magnetic resonance imaging of the primary somatosensory cortex in two cohorts of healthy younger and older adults. Input layer IV is enlarged and more myelinated in older adults and is associated with extended sensory input signals. Age-related cortical thinning is driven by deep layers and accompanied by increased myelination, but there is no clear evidence for reduced inhibition. Calcium imaging and histology in younger and older mice revealed increased sensory-evoked neuronal activity accompanied by increased parvalbumin expression as a potential inhibitory balance, with dynamic changes in layer-specific myelination across age groups. Using multimodal imaging, we demonstrate that middle and deep layers show specific sensitivity to aging across species.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Somatosensory Cortex: physiology
KW  - Somatosensory Cortex: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Mice
KW  - Humans
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Adult
KW  - Female
KW  - Aging: physiology
KW  - Aging: pathology
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - Aged
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Mice, Inbred C57BL
KW  - Parvalbumins: metabolism
KW  - Parvalbumins (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40790266
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41593-025-02013-1
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/281110
ER  -