Kavli Affiliate: Maryam Ziaei
| Authors: Arjun Dave, Shuer Ye, Xiaqing Lan, Alireza Salami, Heidi Jacobs and Maryam Ziaei
| Summary:
The locus coeruleus (LC) regulates attention, arousal and adaptive behavior via widespread noradrenergic projections to cortex, yet its large-scale cortical organization and vulnerability to aging remain poorly understood. Using ultra-high-field 7T–MRI during naturalistic viewing of neutral and negative movie-clips, study-specific LC delineation, and PET-derived receptor–transporter maps, we characterized LC–linked cortical organization in younger and older adults. Functional gradient analysis revealed two dominant axes of cortical organization: a stable primary gradient anchored by catecholaminergic receptor-transporter distributions, and a context-sensitive secondary gradient shifting from visual–somatomotor to sensorimotor–association axis during neutral to negative movie-viewing. Aging selectively altered LC-linked cortical organization during negative movie-viewing, with older adults exhibiting higher global and within-network frontoparietal control dispersion, indicating reduced functional differentiation, a pattern that predicted poorer emotional wellbeing. Together, by revealing chemoarchitectural and context-sensitive LC–cortical organization, this work identifies mechanisms underlying age-related cortical reorganization with consequences for mental health.