Age-related differences in temporal and spatial dimensions of episodic memory performance before and after hundred days of practice.

We explore time and space relationship according to two spatial coding: the left/right extension and the reachability of stimulus along a near/far dimension. Four experiments were carried out in which healthy participants performed the Time and Spatial Bisection tasks in near/far space, before and after a short or long tool-use training. Stimuli were prebisected horizontal lines of different temporal durations in which the midpoint was manipulated according to Muller-Lyer illusion. The perceptual illusory effects emerged in spatial but not temporal judgments. We revealed that temporal and spatial representations dynamically change accordingly with individual’s action potentialities: temporal duration was perceived as shorter and the perceived line’s midpoint was shifted to the left in far than in near space. Crucially, this dissociation disappeared following a long but not short tool-use training. Finally, we observed age-related difference in spatial attention which may be crucial in built the memory temporal standard to categorize durations.

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Intact context memory performance in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-99898-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sidni A. Justus ◽

Patrick S. Powell ◽

Audrey Duarte

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Memory Accuracy ◽

Age Related ◽

Adults With Asd ◽

Context Memory

AbstractResearch on memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) finds increased difficulty encoding contextual associations in episodic memory and suggests executive dysfunction (e.g., selective attention, cognitive flexibility) and deficient metacognitive monitoring as potential contributing factors. Findings from our lab suggest that age-related impairments in selective attention contribute to those in context memory accuracy and older adults tended to show dependence in context memory accuracy between relevant and irrelevant context details (i.e., hyper-binding). Using an aging framework, we tested the effects of selective attention on context memory in a sample of 23 adults with ASD and 23 typically developed adults. Participants studied grayscale objects flanked by two types of contexts (color, scene) on opposing sides and were told to attend to only one object-context relationship, ignoring the other context. At test, participants made object and context recognition decisions and judgment of confidence decisions allowing for an evaluation of context memory performance, hyper-binding, and metacognitive performance for context judgments in a single task. Results showed that adults with ASD performed similarly to typically developed adults on all measures. These findings suggest that context memory performance is not always disrupted in adults with ASD, even when demands on selective attention are high. We discuss the need for continued research to evaluate episodic memory in a wider variety of adults with ASD.

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Histopathologic subtype of hippocampal sclerosis and episodic memory performance before and after temporal lobectomy for epilepsy

Epilepsia ◽

10.1111/epi.14036 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 59 (4) ◽

pp. 825-833 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shahram Saghafi ◽

Lisa Ferguson ◽

Olivia Hogue ◽

Jordan M. Gales ◽

Richard Prayson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Hippocampal Sclerosis ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Temporal Lobectomy ◽

Before And After

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ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND MEMORY: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF RECIPROCAL IMPACTS ACROSS OLD AGE

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.2416 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S651-S651

Author(s):

Oliver K Schilling

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Old Age ◽

Cognitive Aging ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Longitudinal Change ◽

Moderate Alcohol Consumption ◽

Age Related ◽

Lagged Effects

Abstract Research on the association of alcohol consumption with cognitive aging revealed mixed evidence: Whereas a u-shaped relationship has been found in many studies, suggesting that low to moderate alcohol consumption predicts more favorable cognitive outcomes than abstinence, other findings suggest that alcohol is a more linearly related risk factor for cognitive decline. These inconsistencies may partly be due to methodological variation in the statistical modeling of intraindividual changes in both, alcohol consumption and cognition across old age. The present study analyzed longitudinal change in and the mutual effects between alcohol consumption habits and verbal episodic memory (word list recall), using vector autoregressive (VAR) mixed models with nonlinear cross-lagged effects. Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing was examined, including N=13388 aged 50+ (M=67.6, SD=9.25; 54.7% female), assessed at up to eight occasions with two-year follow-up intervals (2002/3–2016/17). The self-reported one-year frequency of alcohol drinking days (ADD) served as indicator of alcohol consumption. Basically, ADD predicted follow-up memory performance in a reverse u-shaped fashion, indicating best memory performance after moderate ADD, compared with both ends of the ADD continuum (i.e., drinking never vs. every day). Considering moderators, most notably age did not interact with cross-lagged effects, suggesting that those observed across an older age-range were not more (or less) vulnerable to effects of alcohol consumption on memory performance. Thus, this study adds further support for non-detrimental, if not beneficial, effects of moderate alcohol consumption on cognitive aging – regarding in particular age-related loss of episodic memory.

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Quantifying Cognitive Reserve in Older Adults by Decomposing Episodic Memory Variance: Replication and Extension

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617713000738 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (8) ◽

pp. 854-862 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Laura B. Zahodne ◽

Jennifer J. Manly ◽

Adam M. Brickman ◽

Karen L. Siedlecki ◽

Charles DeCarli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Reading Ability ◽

Cognitive Reserve ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Memory Performance ◽

White Matter Hyperintensity ◽

Residual Variance ◽

Brain Pathology ◽

Language Abilities ◽

Age Related

AbstractThe theory of cognitive reserve attempts to explain why some individuals are more resilient to age-related brain pathology. Efforts to explore reserve have been hindered by measurement difficulties. Reed et al. (2010) proposed quantifying reserve as residual variance in episodic memory performance that remains after accounting for demographic factors and brain pathology (whole brain, hippocampal, and white matter hyperintensity volumes). This residual variance represents the discrepancy between an individual's predicted and actual memory performance. The goals of the present study were to extend these methods to a larger, community-based sample and to investigate whether the residual reserve variable is explained by age, predicts longitudinal changes in language, and predicts dementia conversion independent of age. Results support this operational measure of reserve. The residual reserve variable was associated with higher reading ability, lower likelihood of meeting criteria for mild cognitive impairment, lower odds of dementia conversion independent of age, and less decline in language abilities over 3 years. Finally, the residual reserve variable moderated the negative impact of memory variance explained by brain pathology on language decline. This method has the potential to facilitate research on the mechanisms of cognitive reserve and the efficacy of interventions designed to impart reserve. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–9)

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Age-Related Compensatory Reconfiguration of PFC Connections during Episodic Memory Retrieval

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa192 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lifu Deng ◽

Mathew L Stanley ◽

Zachary A Monge ◽

Erik A Wing ◽

Benjamin R Geib ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Retrieval ◽

Medial Temporal Lobe ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Functional Integration ◽

Brain Network ◽

Age Related ◽

Connectivity Patterns ◽

The Brain ◽

Related Increase

Abstract During demanding cognitive tasks, older adults (OAs) frequently show greater prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity than younger adults (YAs). This age-related increase in PFC activity is often associated with enhanced cognitive performance, suggesting functional compensation. However, the brain is a complex network of interconnected regions, and it is unclear how network connectivity of PFC regions differs for OAs versus YAs. To investigate this, we examined the age-related difference on the functional brain networks mediating episodic memory retrieval. YAs and OAs participants encoded and recalled visual scenes, and age-related differences in network topology during memory retrieval were investigated as a function of memory performance. We measured both changes in functional integration and reconfiguration in connectivity patterns. The study yielded three main findings. First, PFC regions were more functionally integrated with the rest of the brain network in OAs. Critically, this age-related increase in PFC integration was associated with better retrieval performance. Second, PFC regions showed stronger performance-related reconfiguration of connectivity patterns in OAs. Finally, the PFC reconfiguration increases in OAs tracked reconfiguration reductions in the medial temporal lobe (MTL)—a core episodic memory region, suggesting that PFC connectivity in OAs may be compensating for MTL deficits.

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The relationship between age, neural differentiation, and memory performance

10.1101/345181 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Joshua D. Koen ◽

Nedra Hauck ◽

Michael D. Rugg

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Neural Differentiation ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Age Related Cognitive Decline ◽

Neural Selectivity ◽

The Relationship ◽

Differentiation Index

AbstractHealthy aging is associated with decreased neural selectivity (dedifferentiation) in category-selective cortical regions. This finding has prompted the suggestion that dedifferentiation contributes to age-related cognitive decline. Consistent with this possibility, dedifferentiation has been reported to negatively correlate with fluid intelligence in older adults. Here, we examined whether dedifferentiation is associated with performance in another cognitive domain – episodic memory – that is also highly vulnerable to aging. Given the proposed role of differentiation in age-related cognitive decline, we predicted there would be a stronger link between dedifferentiation and episodic memory performance in older than in younger adults. Young (18-30 yrs) and older (64-75 yrs) male and female humans underwent fMRI scanning while viewing images of objects and scenes prior to a subsequent recognition memory test. We computed a differentiation index in two regions-of-interest (ROIs): parahippocampal place area (PPA) and lateral occipital complex (LOC). This index quantified the selectivity of the BOLD response to an ROI’s preferred versus non-preferred category (scenes for PPA, objects for LOC). The differentiation index in the PPA, but not the LOC, was lower in older than in younger adults. Additionally, the PPA differentiation index predicted recognition memory performance for the studied items. This relationship was independent of and not moderated by age. The PPA differentiation index also predicted performance on a latent ‘fluency’ factor derived from a neuropsychological test battery; this relationship was also age invariant. These findings suggest that two independent factors, one associated with age, and the other with cognitive performance, drive neural differentiation.Significance StatementAging is associated with neural dedifferentiation – reduced neural selectivity in ‘category selective’ cortical brain regions – which has been proposed to mediate cognitive aging. Here, we examined whether neural differentiation is predictive of episodic memory performance, and whether the relationship is moderated by age. A neural differentiation index was estimated for scene-(PPA) and object-(LOC) selective cortical regions while participants studied images for a subsequent memory test. Age related reductions were observed for the PPA, but not the LOC, differentiation index. Importantly, the PPA differentiation index demonstrated age invariant correlations with subsequent memory performance and a fluency factor derived from a neuropsychological battery. Together, these findings suggest that neural differentiation is associated with two independent factors: age and cognitive performance.

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Evaluation of Episodic and Lexical Metamemory and Executive Function in Healthy Older Adults

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.2618 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 704-705

Author(s):

Atsuko Hayashi

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Executive Function ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Stroop Task ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Task ◽

Lexical Memory ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

Age Related

Abstract In older adults, it is important to maintain awareness of memory as well as memory performance. However, it is not clear whether the awareness of episodic and lexical memory changes with age and is related to self-evaluation of memory and executive function. Here age-related changes and the relationship between metamemory, executive function, and metamemory scale were investigated. Healthy old (n=40) and young (n=34) groups participated in this study. In the episodic memory task, participants were asked to memorize ten Kanji words and to estimate the number of words they could recall after ten minutes. In the lexical memory task, they rated the likelihood that they could write a target Kanji word written in hiragana and then wrote them down. They were also asked to complete the metamemory in adulthood(MIA) and the position stroop task. In the episodic and lexical memory and the position stroop task and MIA subscales, the performances of the younger group were significantly better than those of the older group. In the episodic memory task, there were correlations between the metamemory and MIA subscales in both groups, but in the lexical memory task, only in the old group. No correlation was found between the results of both memory tasks and the stroop test. These results suggest that older people overestimate memory performances in the episodic and lexical memory tasks and metamemory performances may be associated with self-evaluation of memory. In addition, metamemory might not be related to frontal lobe function as shown in executive function tasks.

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Contributions of representational distinctiveness and stability to memory performance and age differences

10.31234/osf.io/7spxj ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Verena R. Sommer ◽

Myriam C. Sander

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Age Differences ◽

Cognitive Aging ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Stimulus Category ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Age Related ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

Versatile Tool

Long-standing theories of cognitive aging suggest that memory decline is associated with age-related differences in the way information is represented in the brain. In the last years, these hypotheses have been substantiated by novel neuroscientific evidence that was derived from multivariate pattern similarity analyses. This approach enabled researchers to take a representational perspective on brain and cognition, and allowed them to study the properties of neural representations that support successful episodic memory. In young adults, two prominent representational properties have been identified as crucial for memory performance, namely the distinctiveness and the stability of neural representations. Distinctiveness describes the relation of neural representations to each other, i.e., how similar or dissimilar they are, while stability characterizes how much or how little representations change over time. However, researchers have only recently started to explore age differences in these representational properties and how they interact to support episodic memory in old age. Here, we review studies that used multivariate analysis tools for different neuroimaging techniques to clarify how representational distinctiveness, stability, and their interactions relate to memory performance across adulthood, and specifically during aging. While most evidence on age differences in neural representations involved how stimulus category information is represented, recent studies demonstrated that particularly item-level stability and specificity of activity patterns are positively linked to memory success and decline during aging. Overall, multivariate methods offer a promising and versatile tool for our understanding of age differences in the neural representations underlying episodic memory.

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