scholarly journals Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Genotype Affects Age-Related Changes in Plasticity in Working Memory: A Pilot Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Heinzel ◽  
Thomas G. Riemer ◽  
Stefanie Schulte ◽  
Johanna Onken ◽  
Andreas Heinz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Dopamine Metabolism ◽  
Comt Genotype ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Changes

Objectives. Recent work suggests that a genetic variation associated with increased dopamine metabolism in the prefrontal cortex (catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met; COMT) amplifies age-related changes in working memory performance. Research on younger adults indicates that the influence of dopamine-related genetic polymorphisms on working memory performance increases when testing the cognitive limits through training. To date, this has not been studied in older adults.Method. Here we investigate the effect of COMT genotype on plasticity in working memory in a sample of 14 younger (aged 24–30 years) and 25 older (aged 60–75 years) healthy adults. Participants underwent adaptive training in then-back working memory task over 12 sessions under increasing difficulty conditions.Results. Both younger and older adults exhibited sizeable behavioral plasticity through training (P<.001), which was larger in younger as compared to older adults (P<.001). Age-related differences were qualified by an interaction with COMT genotype (P<.001), and this interaction was due to decreased behavioral plasticity in older adults carrying the Val/Val genotype, while there was no effect of genotype in younger adults.Discussion. Our findings indicate that age-related changes in plasticity in working memory are critically affected by genetic variation in prefrontal dopamine metabolism.

scholarly journals Strategic prioritisation enhances young and older adults’ visual feature binding in working memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096071
Author(s):  
Richard J Allen ◽  
Amy L Atkinson ◽  
Louise A Brown Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Serial Position ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Feature Binding ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Presentation Time ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Visual working memory for features and bindings is susceptible to age-related decline. Two experiments were used to examine whether older adults are able to strategically prioritise more valuable information in working memory and whether this could reduce age-related impairments. Younger (18–33 years) and older (60–90 years) adults were presented with coloured shapes and, following a brief delay, asked to recall the feature that had accompanied the probe item. In Experiment 1, participants were either asked to prioritise a more valuable object in the array (serial position 1, 2, or 3) or to treat them all equally. Older adults exhibited worse overall memory performance but were as able as younger adults to prioritise objects. In both groups, this ability was particularly apparent at the middle serial position. Experiment 2 then explored whether younger and older adults’ prioritisation is affected by presentation time. Replicating Experiment 1, older adults were able to prioritise the more valuable object in working memory, showing equivalent benefits and costs as younger adults. However, processing speed, as indexed by presentation time, was shown not to limit strategic prioritisation in either age group. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that, although older adults have poorer visual working memory overall, the ability to strategically direct attention to more valuable items in working memory is preserved across ageing.

scholarly journals Resting‐State EEG Microstates Parallel Age‐Related Differences in Allocentric Spatial Working Memory Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeline Jabès ◽  
Giuliana Klencklen ◽  
Paolo Ruggeri ◽  
Christoph M. Michel ◽  
Pamela Banta Lavenex ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Age Related

AbstractAlterations of resting-state EEG microstates have been associated with various neurological disorders and behavioral states. Interestingly, age-related differences in EEG microstate organization have also been reported, and it has been suggested that resting-state EEG activity may predict cognitive capacities in healthy individuals across the lifespan. In this exploratory study, we performed a microstate analysis of resting-state brain activity and tested allocentric spatial working memory performance in healthy adult individuals: twenty 25–30-year-olds and twenty-five 64–75-year-olds. We found a lower spatial working memory performance in older adults, as well as age-related differences in the five EEG microstate maps A, B, C, C′ and D, but especially in microstate maps C and C′. These two maps have been linked to neuronal activity in the frontal and parietal brain regions which are associated with working memory and attention, cognitive functions that have been shown to be sensitive to aging. Older adults exhibited lower global explained variance and occurrence of maps C and C′. Moreover, although there was a higher probability to transition from any map towards maps C, C′ and D in young and older adults, this probability was lower in older adults. Finally, although age-related differences in resting-state EEG microstates paralleled differences in allocentric spatial working memory performance, we found no evidence that any individual or combination of resting-state EEG microstate parameter(s) could reliably predict individual spatial working memory performance. Whether the temporal dynamics of EEG microstates may be used to assess healthy cognitive aging from resting-state brain activity requires further investigation.

scholarly journals Resolving Age-Related Differences in Working Memory: Equating Perception and Attention Makes Older Adults Remember as Well as Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Verhaeghen ◽  
Shriradha Geigerman ◽  
Haoxiang Yang ◽  
Alejandra C. Montoya ◽  
Dobromir Rahnev
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related

scholarly journals C-24 Longitudinal Trajectories of Working Memory Performance in Typically Aging Older Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1053-1053
Author(s):  
M Gonzalez Catalan ◽  
C Lindbergh ◽  
A Staffaroni ◽  
S Walters ◽  
K Casaletto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Time Interaction ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Random Slopes ◽  
Aging Adults

Abstract Objective Cross-sectional studies have shown age-related differences in working memory (WM), but the trajectory is unclear due to the scarcity of longitudinal studies. Additional research is needed to better characterize the course of age-related changes in WM in older adults. The present study sought to address this gap in the literature by conducting serial assessments of WM in a longitudinally followed cohort of typically aging adults. We hypothesized a significant age × time interaction, such that WM would show pronounced declines with advancing age. Methods 640 functionally intact participants in an aging cohort (clinical dementia rating = 0; age range 52-99, mean age = 75) completed a computerized WM measure, Running Letter Memory (RLM), every ~15 months for up to 8.5 years (mean follow-up = 1.9 years). Longitudinal changes in RLM scores were analyzed using linear mixed effects models, allowing for random slopes and intercepts. All models were adjusted for sex and education. Results RLM performance did not significantly decline over time (b = -.14, p = .43). As hypothesized, there was a significant age × time interaction predicting RLM scores (b = -.08, p = .006). Specifically, RLM performance remained relatively stable (or slightly improved) until around age 75, beyond which increasingly precipitous declines were observed with advancing age. Conclusion The present results suggest that WM performance does not evidence declines until the mid-70s in typically aging adults, at which point increasingly steep decline trajectories are observed with advancing age. These findings highlight that cognitive aging does not occur at a constant rate in late life.

Working memory and aging: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis using a self-ordered pointing task

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
NAOMI CHAYTOR ◽  
MAUREEN SCHMITTER-EDGECOMBE
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
Pointing Task

Age-related declines in working memory performance have been associated with deficits in inhibition, strategy use, processing speed, and monitoring. In the current study, cross-sectional and longitudinal methodologies were used to investigate the relative contribution of these components to age-related changes in working memory. In Experiment 1, a sample of 140 younger and 140 older adults completed an abstract design version of the Self-Ordered Pointing Task modeled after Shimamura and Jurica (1994). Experiment 1 revealed that only processing speed and monitoring explained age differences in SOPT performance. Participants in Experiment 2 were 53 older adults who returned 4 years after the initial testing and 53 young adults. A task that assessed the ability to generate and monitor an internal series of responses as compared to an externally imposed series of responses was also administered. Experiment 2 replicated the key findings from Experiment 1 and provided some further evidence for age-related internal monitoring difficulties. Furthermore, the exploratory longitudinal analysis revealed that older age and lower intellectual abilities tended to be associated with poorer performance on the SOPT at Time 2. (JINS, 2004, 10, 489–503.)

Reduced Suppression or Labile Memory? Mechanisms of Inefficient Filtering of Irrelevant Information in Older Adults

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Fabiani ◽  
Kathy A. Low ◽  
Emily Wee ◽  
Jeffrey J. Sable ◽  
Gabriele Gratton
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Sensory Memory ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Memory Decay ◽  
Age Related Changes

Cognitive aging theories emphasize the decrease in efficiency of inhibitory processes and attention control in normal aging, which, in turn, may result in reduction of working memory function. Accordingly, some of these age-related changes may be due to faster sensory memory decay or to inefficient filtering of irrelevant sensory information (sensory gating). Here, event-related brain potentials and the event-related optical signal were recorded in younger and older adults passively listening to tone trains. To determine whether age differentially affects decay of sensory memory templates over short intervals, trains were separated by delays of either 1 or 5 sec. To determine whether age affects the suppression of responses to unattended repeated stimuli, we evaluated the brain activity elicited by successive train stimuli. Some trains started with a shorter-duration stimulus (deviant trains). Results showed that both electrical and optical responses to tones were more persistent with repeated stimulation in older adults than in younger adults, whereas the effects of delay were similar in the two groups. A mismatch negativity (MMN) was elicited by the first stimulus in deviant trains. This MMN was larger for 1- than 5-sec delay, but did not differ across groups. These data suggest that age-related changes in sensory processing are likely due to inefficient filtering of repeated information, rather than to faster sensory memory decay. This inefficient filtering may be due to, or interact with, reduced attention control. Furthermore, it may increase the noise levels in the information processing system and thus contribute to problems with working memory and speed of processing.

scholarly journals Alpha Phase Dynamics Predict Age-Related Visual Working Memory Decline

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tam T. Tran ◽  
Nicole C. Hoffner ◽  
Sara C. LaHue ◽  
Lisa Tseng ◽  
Bradley Voytek
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Alpha Phase ◽  
Phase Dynamics ◽  
Memory Array ◽  
Age Related

AbstractAlpha oscillations are modulated in response to visual temporal and spatial cues, However, the neural response to alerting cues is less explored, as is how this response is affected by healthy aging. Using scalp EEG, we examined how visual cortical alpha activity relates to working memory performance. Younger (20-30 years) and older (60-70 years) participants were presented with a visual alerting cue uninformative of the position or size of a lateralized working memory array. Older adults showed longer response times overall, and reduced accuracy when memory load was high. Older adults had less consistent cue-evoked phase resetting than younger adults, which predicted worse performance. Alpha phase prior to memory array presentation predicted response time, but the relationship between phase and response time was weaker in older adults. These results suggest that changes in alpha phase dynamics, especially prior to presentation of task-relevant stimuli, potentially contribute to age-related cognitive decline.

scholarly journals What affects the magnitude of age-related dual-task costs in working memory? The role of stimulus domain and access to semantic representations

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182097074
Author(s):  
Agnieszka J Jaroslawska ◽  
Stephen Rhodes ◽  
Clément Belletier ◽  
Jason M Doherty ◽  
Nelson Cowan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Concurrent Processing ◽  
Age Related

Although there is evidence that the effect of including a concurrent processing demand on the storage of information in working memory is disproportionately larger for older than younger adults, not all studies show this age-related impairment, and the critical factors responsible for any such impairment remain elusive. Here we assess whether domain overlap between storage and processing activities, and access to semantic representations, are important determinants of performance in a sample of younger and older adults ( N = 119). We developed four versions of a processing task by manipulating the type of stimuli involved (either verbal or non-verbal) and the decision that participants had to make about the stimuli presented on the screen. Participants either had to perform a spatial judgement, in deciding whether the verbal or non-verbal item was presented above or below the centre of the screen, or a semantic judgement, in deciding whether the stimulus refers to something living or not living. The memory task was serial-ordered recall of visually presented letters. The study revealed a large increase in age-related memory differences when concurrent processing was required. These differences were smaller when storage and processing activities both used verbal materials. Dual-task effects on processing were also disproportionate for older adults. Age differences in processing performance appeared larger for tasks requiring spatial decisions rather than semantic decisions. We discuss these findings in relation to three competing frameworks of working memory and the extant literature on cognitive ageing.

scholarly journals Cognitive aging and verbal labeling in continuous visual memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 1196-1213
Author(s):  
Alicia Forsberg ◽  
Wendy Johnson ◽  
Robert H. Logie
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Age Related

Abstract The decline of working memory (WM) is a common feature of general cognitive decline, and visual and verbal WM capacity appear to decline at different rates with age. Visual material may be remembered via verbal codes or visual traces, or both. Souza and Skóra, Cognition, 166, 277–297 (2017) found that labeling boosted memory in younger adults by activating categorical visual long-term memory (LTM) knowledge. Here, we replicated this and tested whether it held in healthy older adults. We compared performance in silence, under instructed overt labeling (participants were asked to say color names out loud), and articulatory suppression (repeating irrelevant syllables to prevent labeling) in the delayed estimation paradigm. Overt labeling improved memory performance in both age groups. However, comparing the effect of overt labeling and suppression on the number of coarse, categorical representations in the two age groups suggested that older adults used verbal labels subvocally more than younger adults, when performing the task in silence. Older adults also appeared to benefit from labels differently than younger adults. In younger adults labeling appeared to improve visual, continuous memory, suggesting that labels activated visual LTM representations. However, for older adults, labels did not appear to enhance visual, continuous representations, but instead boosted memory via additional verbal (categorical) memory traces. These results challenged the assumption that visual memory paradigms measure the same cognitive ability in younger and older adults, and highlighted the importance of controlling differences in age-related strategic preferences in visual memory tasks.

scholarly journals I know your face but can’t remember your name: Age-related differences in the FNAME-12NL

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Enriquez-Geppert ◽  
J F Flores-Vázquez ◽  
M Lietz ◽  
M Garcia-Pimenta ◽  
P Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Abstract Objective The Face-Name Associative Memory test (FNAME) has recently received attention as a test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. So far, however, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of aging. Here, we aimed to assess the extent to which the FNAME performance is modulated by normal ageing. Method In a first step, we adapted the FNAME material to the Dutch population. In a second step, younger (n = 29) and older adults (n = 29) were compared on recall and recognition performance. Results Significant age effects on name recall were observed after the first exposure of new face-name pairs: younger adults remembered eight, whereas older adults remembered a mean of four out of twelve names. Although both age groups increased the number of recalled names with repeated face-name exposure, older adults did not catch up with the performance of the younger adults, and the age-effects remained stable. Despite of that, both age groups maintained their performance after a 30-min delay. Considering recognition, no age differences were demonstrated, and both age groups succeeded in the recognition of previously shown faces and names when presented along with distractors. Conclusions This study presents for the first time the results of different age groups regarding cross-modal associative memory performance on the FNAME. The recall age effects support the hypothesis of age-related differences in associative memory. To use the FNAME as an early cognitive biomarker, further subscales are suggested to increase sensitivity and specificity in the clinical context.

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