Regional Brain Morphometry and Adaptive Foraging Reveal Age-Related Cognitive Flexibility and Resilience Trends in Egyptian Fruit Bats

Abstract: Aging often leads to cognitive decline, yet some individuals maintain remarkable cognitive abilities despite advanced age—a phenomenon known as cognitive resilience. This study investigated the neural and behavioral correlates of cognitive resilience in 33 long-lived Egyptian fruit bats (DNAm age: 6.6-13.8 years), an excellent model for mammalian aging. We integrated refined behavioral phenotyping from a multi-phase spatial foraging task (quantifying spatial learning, perseveration, and adaptive shifting) with regional brain morphometry (volume and mean signal intensity) derived from b0 images of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) sequences across 24 atlas-defined regions. Statistical analyses employed multiple linear regressions to assess age effects and moderation models with False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction to identify brain-behavior interactions indicative of resilience. Results showed that older bats exhibited significantly fewer short-term perseverative errors, suggesting enhanced cognitive flexibility or strategy shifts with age. Concurrently, mean b0 signal intensity in ROI 14 significantly increased with DNAm age, potentially reflecting age-related microstructural changes. While no brain-behavior interactions achieved statistical significance after stringent FDR correction, an exploratory analysis revealed a compelling trend: higher b0 signal intensity in ROI 19 appeared to mitigate age-related declines in learning consolidation, a pattern consistent with cognitive resilience. These findings highlight the nuanced nature of cognitive aging in bats, revealing specific age-related behavioral adaptations and localized brain changes, and provide data-driven hypotheses for future research into neurobiological mechanisms supporting cognitive health in long-lived species. \

Subjects:	q-bio.NC; q-bio.QM
Cite as:	PX:2508.00040