scholarly journals Oscillatory Mechanisms of Successful Memory Formation in Younger and Older Adults Are Related to Structural Integrity

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 3744-3758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myriam C Sander ◽  
Yana Fandakova ◽  
Thomas H Grandy ◽  
Yee Lee Shing ◽  
Markus Werkle-Bergner
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Interindividual Differences ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
Oscillatory Mechanisms

Abstract We studied oscillatory mechanisms of memory formation in 48 younger and 51 older adults in an intentional associative memory task with cued recall. While older adults showed lower memory performance than young adults, we found subsequent memory effects (SME) in alpha/beta and theta frequency bands in both age groups. Using logistic mixed effects models, we investigated whether interindividual differences in structural integrity of key memory regions could account for interindividual differences in the strength of the SME. Structural integrity of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and hippocampus was reduced in older adults. SME in the alpha/beta band were modulated by the cortical thickness of IFG, in line with its hypothesized role for deep semantic elaboration. Importantly, this structure–function relationship did not differ by age group. However, older adults were more frequently represented among the participants with low cortical thickness and consequently weaker SME in the alpha band. Thus, our results suggest that differences in the structural integrity of the IFG contribute not only to interindividual, but also to age differences in memory formation.

scholarly journals Oscillatory Mechanisms of Successful Memory Formation in Younger and Older Adults Are Related to Structural Integrity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myriam C. Sander ◽  
Yana Fandakova ◽  
Thomas H. Grandy ◽  
Yee Lee Shing ◽  
Markus Werkle-Bergner
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Interindividual Differences ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
Oscillatory Mechanisms

AbstractWe studied oscillatory mechanisms of successful memory formation in 47 younger and 52 older adults in an intentional associative memory task with cued recall. While older adults showed reduced memory performance, we found subsequent memory effects (SME) in alpha/beta and theta frequency bands in both age groups. Using logistic mixed effect models, we then investigated whether interindividual differences in structural integrity of memory regions that were functionally linked to oscillatory dynamics in previous studies (Hanslmayr et al., 2011) could account for interindividual differences in the strength of the SME. Structural integrity of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and hippocampus (HC) was reduced in older adults. SME in the alpha/beta band were indeed modulated by the cortical thickness of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), in line with its hypothesized role for deep semantic elaboration. Importantly, this structure–function relationship did not differ by age group. However, older adults were more frequently represented among the participants with low cortical thickness and consequently weaker SME in the alpha band. Thus, our results suggest that differences in the structural integrity of the IFG are the basis not only for interindividual, but also for age differences in memory formation.

scholarly journals Locus coeruleus integrity in old age is selectively related to memories linked with salient negative events

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (9) ◽  
pp. 2228-2233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothea Hämmerer ◽  
Martina F. Callaghan ◽  
Alexandra Hopkins ◽  
Julian Kosciessa ◽  
Matthew Betts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Negative Events ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Aversive Events ◽  
Strong Motivation ◽  
Noradrenergic Modulation

The locus coeruleus (LC) is the principal origin of noradrenaline in the brain. LC integrity varies considerably across healthy older individuals, and is suggested to contribute to altered cognitive functions in aging. Here we test this hypothesis using an incidental memory task that is known to be susceptible to noradrenergic modulation. We used MRI neuromelanin (NM) imaging to assess LC structural integrity and pupillometry as a putative index of LC activation in both younger and older adults. We show that older adults with reduced structural LC integrity show poorer subsequent memory. This effect is more pronounced for emotionally negative events, in accord with a greater role for noradrenergic modulation in encoding salient or aversive events. In addition, we found that salient stimuli led to greater pupil diameters, consistent with increased LC activation during the encoding of such events. Our study presents novel evidence that a decrement in noradrenergic modulation impacts on specific components of cognition in healthy older adults. The findings provide a strong motivation for further investigation of the effects of altered LC integrity in pathological aging.

scholarly journals Neural and behavioral correlates of episodic memory are associated with temporal discounting in older adults

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina M. Lempert ◽  
Dawn J. Mechanic-Hamilton ◽  
Long Xie ◽  
Laura E.M. Wisse ◽  
Robin de Flores ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractWhen facing decisions involving trade-offs between smaller, sooner and larger, delayed rewards, people tend to discount the value of future rewards. There are substantial individual differences in this tendency toward temporal discounting, however. One neurocognitive system that may underlie these individual differences is episodic memory, given the overlap in the neural circuitry involved in imagining the future and remembering the past. Here we tested this hypothesis in older adults, including both those that were cognitively normal and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We found that performance on neuropsychological measures of episodic memory retrieval was associated with temporal discounting, such that people with better memory discounted delayed rewards less. This relationship was specific to episodic memory and temporal discounting, since executive function (another cognitive ability) was unrelated to temporal discounting, and episodic memory was unrelated to risk tolerance (another decision-making preference). We also examined cortical thickness and volume in medial temporal lobe regions critical for episodic memory. Entorhinal cortical thickness was associated with reduced temporal discounting, with episodic memory performance partially mediating this association. The inclusion of MCI participants was critical to revealing these associations between episodic memory and entorhinal cortical thickness and temporal discounting. These effects were larger in the MCI group, reduced after controlling for MCI status, and statistically significant only when including MCI participants in analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that individual differences in temporal discounting are driven by episodic memory function, and that a decline in medial temporal lobe structural integrity may impact temporal discounting.

scholarly journals Disrupted Neural Synchrony Mediates the Relationship between White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 5570-5582 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Hinault ◽  
M Kraut ◽  
A Bakker ◽  
A Dagher ◽  
S M Courtney
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Phase Locking ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
White Matter Integrity ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Phase Locking Value

Abstract Our main goal was to determine the influence of white matter integrity on the dynamic coupling between brain regions and the individual variability of cognitive performance in older adults. Electroencephalography was recorded while participants performed a task specifically designed to engage working memory and inhibitory processes, and the associations among functional activity, structural integrity, and cognitive performance were assessed. We found that the association between white matter microstructural integrity and cognitive functioning with aging is mediated by time-varying alpha and gamma phase-locking value. Specifically, better preservation of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in older individuals drives faster task-related modulations of alpha and gamma long-range phase-locking value between the inferior frontal gyrus and occipital lobe and lower local phase-amplitude coupling in occipital lobes, which in turn drives better cognitive control performance. Our results help delineate the role of individual variability of white matter microstructure in dynamic synchrony and cognitive performance during normal aging.

Negative Aging Stereotypes Disrupt both the Selection and Execution of Strategies in Older Adults

Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Lemaire ◽  
Fleur Brun ◽  
Isabelle Régner
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Noncognitive Factors ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Concrete Words

Background: Age-based cognitive deficits are exacerbated by stereotype threat effects (i.e., the threat of being judged as cognitively incapable due to aging). We tested whether age-based stereotype threat effects can occur via impair- ing older adults’ ability to select the best strategy and/or to execute strategies efficiently. Methods: Older adults (age range: 64.3–89.5 years) were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat or control condition before taking an episodic memory task. They encoded pairs of concrete words and of abstract words, with either a repetition or an imagery strategy, and then took a cued-recall task. Whereas participants in experiment 1 could choose between these two strategies, those of experiment 2 were forced to use either the repetition or the imagery strategy. Results: Our findings showed that age-based stereotype threat disrupts both the selection and execution of the most efficient, but also most resource-demanding, imagery strategy, and that these stereotype threat effects were stronger on concrete words. Conclusion: Our findings have important implications to further understand age-based (and other) stereotype threat effects, and how noncognitive factors modulate age-related changes in human cognition.

scholarly journals Cortical thickness in right frontal and left lingual gyri differentially mediate episodic memory for spatial contextual details across the adult lifespan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Swierkot ◽  
M. N. Rajah
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Context Memory

AbstractHealthy aging is associated with declines in episodic memory and with widespread cortical thinning. These parallel declines suggest that age-related changes in cortical thickness may contribute to episodic memory decline with age. The current study uses a cross-sectional study design to examine whether regional cortical thickness mediates the relationship between age and episodic memory, as measured by a context memory task for faces. Mediation and conditional mediation models were tested using bootstrapping in order to determine how age-associated changes in regional cortical thickness mediated age-associated changes in performance on the context memory task. We observed that right superior frontal cortical thickness conditionally mediated spatial context memory only in middle-aged and older adults; and right caudal middle frontal cortical thickness conditionally mediated context memory only in older adults. Left lingual cortical thickness mediated spatial context memory across the adult lifespan, but this effect was most evident at midlife. Right parahippocampal cortical thickness mediated context memory, independent of age. We conclude that our cortical thickness results were generally consistent with the posterior-to-anterior shift in aging hypothesis (Davis et al., 2008) for episodic memory.

Interindividual Differences in Cognitive Functioning Are Associated with Autobiographical Memory Retrieval Specificity in Older Adults

GeroPsych ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Peters ◽  
Signy Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Interindividual Differences ◽  
Retrieval Cues ◽  
Contextual Support

Abstract. We examined whether interindividual differences in cognitive functioning among older adults are related to episodic memory engagement during autobiographical memory retrieval. Older adults ( n = 49, 24 males; mean age = 69.93; mean education = 15.45) with different levels of cognitive functioning, estimated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), retrieved multiple memories (generation task) and the details of a single memory (elaboration task) to cues representing thematic or event-specific autobiographical knowledge. We found that the MoCA score positively predicted the proportion of specific memories for generation and episodic details for elaboration, but only to cues that represented event-specific information. The results demonstrate that individuals with healthy, but not unhealthy, cognitive status can leverage contextual support from retrieval cues to improve autobiographical specificity.

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