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Gao Z, Duberg K, Warren SL, Zheng L, Hinshaw SP, Menon V, Cai W. Reduced temporal and spatial stability of neural activity patterns predict cognitive control deficits in children with ADHD. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.29.596493. [PMID: 38854066 PMCID: PMC11160739 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.29.596493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
This study explores the neural underpinnings of cognitive control deficits in ADHD, focusing on overlooked aspects of trial-level variability of neural coding. We employed a novel computational approach to neural decoding on a single-trial basis alongside a cued stop-signal task which allowed us to distinctly probe both proactive and reactive cognitive control. Typically developing (TD) children exhibited stable neural response patterns for efficient proactive and reactive dual control mechanisms. However, neural coding was compromised in children with ADHD. Children with ADHD showed increased temporal variability and diminished spatial stability in neural responses in salience and frontal-parietal network regions, indicating disrupted neural coding during both proactive and reactive control. Moreover, this variability correlated with fluctuating task performance and with more severe symptoms of ADHD. These findings underscore the significance of modeling single-trial variability and representational similarity in understanding distinct components of cognitive control in ADHD, highlighting new perspectives on neurocognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiyao Gao
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Katherine Duberg
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Stacie L Warren
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Li Zheng
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Stephen P. Hinshaw
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
| | - Vinod Menon
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Maternal & Child Health Research Institute, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Weidong Cai
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Maternal & Child Health Research Institute, Stanford, CA, USA
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2
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Pauley C, Karlsson A, Sander MC. Early visual cortices reveal interrelated item and category representations in aging. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0337-23.2023. [PMID: 38413198 PMCID: PMC10960632 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0337-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/24/2023] [Indexed: 02/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Neural dedifferentiation, the finding that neural representations tend to be less distinct in older adults compared with younger adults, has been associated with age-related declines in memory performance. Most studies assessing the relation between memory and neural dedifferentiation have evaluated how age impacts the distinctiveness of neural representations for different visual categories (e.g., scenes and objects). However, how age impacts the quality of neural representations at the level of individual items is still an open question. Here, we present data from an age-comparative fMRI study that aimed to understand how the distinctiveness of neural representations for individual stimuli differs between younger and older adults and relates to memory outcomes. Pattern similarity searchlight analyses yielded indicators of neural dedifferentiation at the level of individual items as well as at the category level in posterior occipital cortices. We asked whether age differences in neural distinctiveness at each representational level were associated with inter- and/or intraindividual variability in memory performance. While age-related dedifferentiation at both the item and category level related to between-person differences in memory, neural distinctiveness at the category level also tracked within-person variability in memory performance. Concurrently, neural distinctiveness at the item level was strongly associated with neural distinctiveness at the category level both within and across participants, elucidating a potential representational mechanism linking item- and category-level distinctiveness. In sum, we provide evidence that age-related neural dedifferentiation co-exists across multiple representational levels and is related to memory performance.Significance Statement Age-related memory decline has been associated with neural dedifferentiation, the finding that older adults have less distinctive neural representations than younger adults. This has been mostly shown for category information, while evidence for age differences in the specificity of item representations is meager. We used pattern similarity searchlight analyses to find indicators of neural dedifferentiation at both levels of representation (category and item) and linked distinctiveness to memory performance. Both item- and category-level dedifferentiation in the calcarine cortex were related to interindividual differences in memory performance, while category-level distinctiveness further tracked intraindividual variability. Crucially, neural distinctiveness was strongly tied between the item and category levels, indicating that intersecting representational properties of posterior occipital cortices reflect both individual exemplars and categories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Pauley
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin 14195, Germany
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 10115, Germany
| | - Anna Karlsson
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 10115, Germany
| | - Myriam C. Sander
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin 14195, Germany
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3
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Srokova S, Aktas ANZ, Koen JD, Rugg MD. Dissociative Effects of Age on Neural Differentiation at the Category and Item Levels. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e0959232023. [PMID: 38050137 PMCID: PMC10860568 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0959-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Revised: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Increasing age is associated with age-related neural dedifferentiation, a reduction in the selectivity of neural representations, which has been proposed to contribute to cognitive decline in older age. Recent findings indicate that when operationalized in terms of selectivity for different perceptual categories, age-related neural dedifferentiation and the apparent age-invariant association of neural selectivity with cognitive performance are largely restricted to the cortical regions typically recruited during scene processing. It is currently unknown whether this category-level dissociation extends to metrics of neural selectivity defined at the level of individual stimulus items. Here, we examined neural selectivity at the category and item levels using multivoxel pattern similarity analysis (PSA) of fMRI data. Healthy young and older male and female adults viewed images of objects and scenes. Some items were presented singly, while others were either repeated or followed by a "similar lure." In agreement with recent findings, category-level PSA revealed robustly lower differentiation in older than in younger adults in scene-selective, but not object-selective, cortical regions. By contrast, at the item level, robust age-related declines in neural differentiation were evident for both stimulus categories. Additionally, we identified an age-invariant association between category-level scene selectivity in the parahippocampal place area and subsequent memory performance, but no such association was evident for item-level metrics. Lastly, category- and item-level neural metrics were uncorrelated. Thus, the present findings suggest that age-related category- and item-level dedifferentiation depend on distinct neural mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabina Srokova
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080
| | - Ayse N Z Aktas
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235
| | - Joshua D Koen
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080
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4
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Zheng L, Gao Z, Doner S, Oyao A, Forloines M, Grilli MD, Barnes CA, Ekstrom AD. Hippocampal contributions to novel spatial learning are both age-related and age-invariant. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2307884120. [PMID: 38055735 PMCID: PMC10723126 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307884120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Older adults show declines in spatial memory, although the extent of these alterations is not uniform across the healthy older population. Here, we investigate the stability of neural representations for the same and different spatial environments in a sample of younger and older adults using high-resolution functional MRI of the medial temporal lobes. Older adults showed, on average, lower neural pattern similarity for retrieving the same environment and more variable neural patterns compared to young adults. We also found a positive association between spatial distance discrimination and the distinctiveness of neural patterns between environments. Our analyses suggested that one source for this association was the extent of informational connectivity to CA1 from other subfields, which was dependent on age, while another source was the fidelity of signals within CA1 itself, which was independent of age. Together, our findings suggest both age-dependent and independent neural contributions to spatial memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zheng
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - Zhiyao Gao
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Stephanie Doner
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - Alexis Oyao
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - Martha Forloines
- Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA95816
| | - Matthew D. Grilli
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - Carol A. Barnes
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - Arne D. Ekstrom
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
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5
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Zheng L, Gao Z, Doner S, Oyao A, Forloines M, Grilli MD, Barnes CA, Ekstrom AD. Hippocampal contributions to novel spatial learning are both age-related and age-invariant. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.06.28.546918. [PMID: 37425879 PMCID: PMC10326977 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.28.546918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/11/2023]
Abstract
Older adults show declines in spatial memory, although the extent of these alterations is not uniform across the healthy older population. Here, we investigate the stability of neural representations for the same and different spatial environments in a sample of younger and older adults using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the medial temporal lobe. Older adults showed, on average, lower neural pattern similarity for retrieving the same environment and more variable neural patterns compared to young adults. We also found a positive association between spatial distance discrimination and the distinctiveness of neural patterns between environments. Our analyses suggested that one source for this association was the extent of informational connectivity to CA1 from other subfields, which was dependent on age, while another source was the fidelity of signals within CA1 itself, which was independent of age. Together, our findings suggest both age-dependent and independent neural contributions to spatial memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zheng
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
| | - Zhiyao Gao
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Stephanie Doner
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
| | - Alexis Oyao
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
| | - Martha Forloines
- Alzheimer s Disease Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA 95816
| | - Matthew D Grilli
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
- Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
| | - Carol A Barnes
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
- Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
| | - Arne D Ekstrom
- Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
- Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719
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6
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Noh SM, Singla UK, Bennett IJ, Bornstein AM. Memory precision and age differentially predict the use of decision-making strategies across the lifespan. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17014. [PMID: 37813942 PMCID: PMC10562379 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44107-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Memory function declines in normal aging, in a relatively continuous fashion following middle-age. The effect of aging on decision-making is less well-understood, with seemingly conflicting results on both the nature and direction of these age effects. One route for clarifying these mixed findings is to understand how age-related differences in memory affect decisions. Recent work has proposed memory sampling as a specific computational role for memory in decision-making, alongside well-studied mechanisms of reinforcement learning (RL). Here, we tested the hypothesis that age-related declines in episodic memory alter memory sampling. Participants (total N = 361; ages 18-77) performed one of two variants of a standard reward-guided decision experiment with additional trial-unique mnemonic content and a separately-administered task for assessing memory precision. When we fit participants' choices with a hybrid computational model implementing both memory-based and RL-driven valuation side-by-side, we found that memory precision tracked the contribution of memory sampling to choice. At the same time, age corresponded to decreasing influence of RL and increasing perseveration. A second experiment confirmed these results and further revealed that memory precision tracked the specificity of memories selected for sampling. Together, these findings suggest that differences in decision-making across the lifespan may be related to memory function, and that interventions which aim to improve the former may benefit from targeting the latter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharon M Noh
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, The University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
| | - Umesh K Singla
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Ilana J Bennett
- Department of Psychology, The University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - Aaron M Bornstein
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, The University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
- Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, The University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
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7
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Pauley C, Kobelt M, Werkle-Bergner M, Sander MC. Age differences in neural distinctiveness during memory encoding, retrieval, and reinstatement. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9489-9503. [PMID: 37365853 PMCID: PMC10431749 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Robust evidence points to mnemonic deficits in older adults related to dedifferentiated, i.e. less distinct, neural responses during memory encoding. However, less is known about retrieval-related dedifferentiation and its role in age-related memory decline. In this study, younger and older adults were scanned both while incidentally learning face and house stimuli and while completing a surprise recognition memory test. Using pattern similarity searchlight analyses, we looked for indicators of neural dedifferentiation during encoding, retrieval, and encoding-retrieval reinstatement. Our findings revealed age-related reductions in neural distinctiveness during all memory phases in visual processing regions. Interindividual differences in retrieval- and reinstatement-related distinctiveness were strongly associated with distinctiveness during memory encoding. Both item- and category-level distinctiveness predicted trial-wise mnemonic outcomes. We further demonstrated that the degree of neural distinctiveness during encoding tracked interindividual variability in memory performance better than both retrieval- and reinstatement-related distinctiveness. All in all, we contribute to meager existing evidence for age-related neural dedifferentiation during memory retrieval. We show that neural distinctiveness during retrieval is likely tied to recapitulation of encoding-related perceptual and mnemonic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Pauley
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany
| | - Malte Kobelt
- Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Markus Werkle-Bergner
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Myriam C Sander
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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8
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Srokova S, Aktas ANZ, Koen JD, Rugg MD. Dissociative effects of age on neural differentiation at the category and item level. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.24.542148. [PMID: 37293054 PMCID: PMC10245847 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.24.542148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Increasing age is associated with age-related neural dedifferentiation, a reduction in the selectivity of neural representations which has been proposed to contribute to cognitive decline in older age. Recent findings indicate that when operationalized in terms of selectivity for different perceptual categories, age-related neural dedifferentiation, and the apparent age-invariant association of neural selectivity with cognitive performance, are largely restricted to the cortical regions typically recruited during scene processing. It is currently unknown whether this category-level dissociation extends to metrics of neural selectivity defined at the level of individual stimulus items. Here, we examined neural selectivity at the category and item levels using multivoxel pattern similarity analysis (PSA) of fMRI data. Healthy young and older male and female adults viewed images of objects and scenes. Some items were presented singly, while others were either repeated or followed by a 'similar lure'. Consistent with recent findings, category-level PSA revealed robustly lower differentiation in older than younger adults in scene-selective, but not object-selective, cortical regions. By contrast, at the item level, robust age-related declines in neural differentiation were evident for both stimulus categories. Moreover, we identified an age-invariant association between category-level scene-selectivity in the parahippocampal place area and subsequent memory performance, but no such association was evident for item-level metrics. Lastly, category and item-level neural metrics were uncorrelated. Thus, the present findings suggest that age-related category- and item-level dedifferentiation depend on distinct neural mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabina Srokova
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080
| | - Ayse N. Z. Aktas
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235
| | - Joshua D. Koen
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, IN, 90 Corbett Family Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
| | - Michael D. Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080
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Koshino H, Osaka M, Shimokawa T, Kaneda M, Taniguchi S, Minamoto T, Yaoi K, Azuma M, Higo K, Osaka N. Cooperation and competition between the default mode network and frontal parietal network in the elderly. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1140399. [PMID: 37275713 PMCID: PMC10237017 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1140399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent research has shown that the Default Mode Network (DMN) typically exhibits increased activation during processing of social and personal information but shows deactivation during working memory (WM) tasks. Previously, we reported the Frontal Parietal Network (FPN) and DMN showed coactivation during task preparation whereas the DMN exhibited deactivation during task execution in working memory tasks. Aging research has shown that older adults exhibited decreased functional connectivity in the DMN relative to younger adults. Here, we investigated whether age-related cognitive decline is related to a reduced relationship between the FPN and DMN using a working memory task during the execution period. First, we replicated our previous finding that the FPN and DMN showed coactivation during the preparation period, whereas the DMN showed deactivation during the execution period. The older adults showed reduced DMN activity during task preparation and reduced deactivation during task execution; however, they exhibited a higher magnitude of activation in the FPN than the young individuals during task execution. Functional connectivity analyses showed that the elderly group, compared to the young group, showed weaker correlations within the FPN and the DMN, weaker positive correlations between the FPN and DMN during task preparation, and weaker negative correlations between the FPN and DMN during execution. The results suggest that cognitive decline in the older adults might be related to reduced connectivity within the DMN as well as between the FPN and DMN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hideya Koshino
- Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, United States
| | - Mariko Osaka
- Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Tetsuya Shimokawa
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Mizuki Kaneda
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Seira Taniguchi
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Takehiro Minamoto
- Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Ken Yaoi
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Miyuki Azuma
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Katsuki Higo
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Naoyuki Osaka
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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10
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Karlsson AE, Sander MC. Altered alpha/beta desynchronization during item-context binding contributes to the associative deficit in older age. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:2455-2469. [PMID: 35750026 PMCID: PMC10016059 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
It is proposed that older adults have difficulties to bind item and context and to recruit deep, elaborative processing during encoding. Senescent changes in the oscillatory foundations of these processes are currently unclear. We recorded electroencephalography during item-context memory formation in younger (n = 57) and older (n = 55) adults. At test, we assessed memory for the items and the item-context pairs and examined encoding-related activity based on how much information was recovered at retrieval (miss < item-only < pair). Item memory was comparable between age groups while pair memory was reduced in the older adults. Theta synchronization and alpha/beta desynchronization increased linearly with the amount of information available. Single-trial theta power could not predict subsequent item memory, but predicted pair memory in an age-invariant manner, in line with a mechanism supporting associative memory. In contrast, single-trial alpha/beta power predicted both item and pair memory, in line with a mechanism reflecting the depth of information processing, and predicted pair memory less well in the older than the younger adults. Thus, theta and alpha/beta oscillations contribute differently in shaping the contents of memories and reduced processing capacity contributes to episodic memory decline in older age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna E Karlsson
- Corresponding author: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Lentzeallee 94, Berlin 14195, Germany.
| | - Myriam C Sander
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Berlin, Germany
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11
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Xue G. From remembering to reconstruction: The transformative neural representation of episodic memory. Prog Neurobiol 2022; 219:102351. [PMID: 36089107 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Although memory has long been recognized as a generative process, neural research of memory in recent decades has been predominantly influenced by Tulving's "mental time traveling" perspective and focused on the reactivation and consolidation of encoded memory representations. With the development of multiple powerful analytical approaches to characterize the contents and formats of neural representations, recent studies are able to provide detailed examinations of the representations at various processing stages and have provided exciting new insights into the transformative nature of episodic memory. These studies have revealed the rapid, substantial, and continuous transformation of memory representation during the encoding, maintenance, consolidation, and retrieval of both single and multiple events, as well as event sequences. These transformations are characterized by the abstraction, integration, differentiation, and reorganization of memory representations, enabling the long-term retention and generalization of memory. These studies mark a significant shift in perspective from remembering to reconstruction, which might better reveal the nature of memory and its roles in supporting more effective learning, adaptive decision-making, and creative problem solving.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gui Xue
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China; Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing 102206, PR China.
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Folville A, Bahri MA, Delhaye E, Salmon E, Bastin C. Shared vivid remembering: age-related differences in across-participants similarity of neural representations during encoding and retrieval. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2022; 29:526-551. [PMID: 35168499 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2036683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Recent advances in multivariate neuroimaging analyses have made possible the examination of the similarity of the neural patterns of activations measured across participants, but it has not been investigated yet whether such measure is age-sensitive. Here, in the scanner, young and older participants viewed scene pictures associated with labels. At test, participants were presented with the labels and were asked to recollect the associated picture. We used Pattern Similarity Analyses by which we compared patterns of neural activation during the encoding or the remembering of each picture of one participant with the averaged pattern of activation across the remaining participants. Results revealed that across-participants neural similarity was higher in young than in older adults in distributed occipital, temporal and parietal areas during encoding and retrieval. These findings demonstrate that an age-related reduction in specificity of neural activation is also evident when the similarity of neural representations is examined across participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrien Folville
- GIGA-CRC in Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | | | - Emma Delhaye
- GIGA-CRC in Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Faculdade de Psicologia, CICPSI, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Eric Salmon
- GIGA-CRC in Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | - Christine Bastin
- GIGA-CRC in Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
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13
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Sommer VR, Sander MC. Contributions of representational distinctiveness and stability to memory performance and age differences. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2022; 29:443-462. [PMID: 34939904 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2021.2019184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Long-standing theories of cognitive aging suggest that memory decline is associated with age-related differences in the way information is neurally represented. Multivariate pattern similarity analyses 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. Two representational properties have been identified as crucial for memory performance, namely the distinctiveness and the stability of neural representations. Here, we review studies that used multivariate analysis tools for different neuroimaging techniques to clarify how these representational properties relate to memory performance across adulthood. While most evidence on age differences in neural representations involved stimulus category information , recent studies demonstrated that particularly item-level stability and specificity of activity patterns are linked to memory success and decline during aging. Overall, multivariate methods offer a versatile tool for our understanding of age differences in the neural representations underlying memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Verena R Sommer
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Myriam C Sander
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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14
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Koen JD. Age-related neural dedifferentiation for individual stimuli: an across-participant pattern similarity analysis. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2022; 29:552-576. [PMID: 35189773 PMCID: PMC8960356 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2040411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Age-related neural dedifferentiation - reductions in the regional specificity and precision of neural representations - is proposed to compromise the ability of older adults to form sufficiently distinct neural representations to support episodic memory encoding. The computational model that spurred investigations of age-related neural dedifferentiation initially characterized this phenomenon as a reduction in the specificity of neural patterns for individual items or stimuli. Most investigations have focused on reductions in neural differentiation for patterns of neural activity associated with category-level information, such as reduced neural selectivity between categories of visual stimuli (e.g., scenes, objects, and faces). Here, I report a novel across-participant pattern similarity analysis method to measure neural distinctiveness for individual stimuli that were presented to participants on a single occasion. Measures of item-level pattern similarity during encoding showed a graded positive subsequent memory effect in younger, with no significant subsequent memory effect in older adults. These results suggest that age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural patterns for individual stimuli during age differences in memory encoding. Moreover, a measure of category-level similarity demonstrated a significant subsequent memory effect associated with item recognition (regardless of an object source memory detail), whereas the effect in older was associated with source memory. These results converge with predictions of computational models of dedifferentiation showing age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural patterns across multiple levels of representation.
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15
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Sheng J, Zhang L, Liu C, Liu J, Feng J, Zhou Y, Hu H, Xue G. Higher-dimensional neural representations predict better episodic memory. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabm3829. [PMID: 35442734 PMCID: PMC9020666 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm3829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Episodic memory enables humans to encode and later vividly retrieve information about our rich experiences, yet the neural representations that support this mental capacity are poorly understood. Using a large fMRI dataset (n = 468) of face-name associative memory tasks and principal component analysis to examine neural representational dimensionality (RD), we found that the human brain maintained a high-dimensional representation of faces through hierarchical representation within and beyond the face-selective regions. Critically, greater RD was associated with better subsequent memory performance both within and across participants, and this association was specific to episodic memory but not general cognitive abilities. Furthermore, the frontoparietal activities could suppress the shared low-dimensional fluctuations and reduce the correlations of local neural responses, resulting in greater RD. RD was not associated with the degree of item-specific pattern similarity, and it made complementary contributions to episodic memory. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of the role of RD in supporting accurate episodic memory.
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16
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Chen YW, Wengler K, He X, Canli T. Individual Differences in Cerebral Perfusion as a Function of Age and Loneliness. Exp Aging Res 2022; 48:1-23. [PMID: 34036895 PMCID: PMC8617054 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2021.1929748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Loneliness is defined as the subjective feeling that one's social needs are not satisfied by both quantity and quality of one's social relationships. Loneliness has been linked to a broad range of adverse physical and mental health consequences. There is an interest in identifying the neural and molecular processes by which loneliness adversely affects health. Prior imaging studies reported divergent networks involved in cognitive, emotional, and social processes associated with loneliness. Although loneliness is common among both younger and older adults, it is experienced differently across the lifespan and has different antecedents and consequences. The current study measured regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) using pulsed arterial spin labeling imaging. Forty-five older (Mage = 63.4) and forty-four younger adults (Mage = 20.9) with comparable degrees of loneliness were included. Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis revealed a main effect of age (in superior temporal and supramarginal gyri), but no main effect of loneliness. Furthermore, the age effect was only observed among people who reported higher level of loneliness. These regions have previously been implicated in social- and attention-related functions. The moderation of loneliness on age and regional CBF suggests that younger and older individuals present differential neural manifestations in response to loneliness, even with comparable levels of loneliness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yen-Wen Chen
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY,Corresponding author: Yen-Wen Chen, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Psychology B Building, Room 325, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA.
| | - Kenneth Wengler
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
| | - Xiang He
- Department of Radiology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
| | - Turhan Canli
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY,Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
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17
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Prior knowledge shapes older adults' perception and memory for everyday events. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2022.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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18
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Spectral Pattern Similarity Analysis: Tutorial and Application in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2022; 54:101071. [PMID: 35063811 PMCID: PMC8784303 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Revised: 12/06/2021] [Accepted: 01/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The human brain encodes information in neural activation patterns. While standard approaches to analyzing neural data focus on brain (de-)activation (e.g., regarding the location, timing, or magnitude of neural responses), multivariate neural pattern similarity analyses target the informational content represented by neural activity. In adults, a number of representational properties have been identified that are linked to cognitive performance, in particular the stability, distinctiveness, and specificity of neural patterns. However, although growing cognitive abilities across childhood suggest advancements in representational quality, developmental studies still rarely utilize information-based pattern similarity approaches, especially in electroencephalography (EEG) research. Here, we provide a comprehensive methodological introduction and step-by-step tutorial for pattern similarity analysis of spectral (frequency-resolved) EEG data including a publicly available pipeline and sample dataset with data from children and adults. We discuss computation of single-subject pattern similarities and their statistical comparison at the within-person to the between-group level as well as the illustration and interpretation of the results. This tutorial targets both novice and more experienced EEG researchers and aims to facilitate the usage of spectral pattern similarity analyses, making these methodologies more readily accessible for (developmental) cognitive neuroscientists.
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19
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Pauley C, Sommer VR, Kobelt M, Keresztes A, Werkle-Bergner M, Sander MC. Age-related declines in neural selectivity manifest differentially during encoding and recognition. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 112:139-150. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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20
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Simmonite M, Polk TA. Age-related declines in neural distinctiveness correlate across brain areas and result from both decreased reliability and increased confusability. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2021; 29:483-499. [PMID: 34757860 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2021.1999383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
According to the neural dedifferentiation hypothesis, age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural representations contribute to sensory, cognitive, and motor declines associated with aging: neural activity associated with different stimulus categories becomes more confusable with age and behavioral performance suffers as a result. Initial studies investigated age-related dedifferentiation in the visual cortex, but subsequent research has revealed declines in other brain regions, suggesting that dedifferentiation may be a general feature of the aging brain. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate age-related dedifferentiation in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices. Participants were 58 young adults and 79 older adults. The similarity of activation patterns across different blocks of the same category was calculated (within-category correlation, a measure of reliability) as was the similarity of activation patterns elicited by different categories (between-category correlations, a measure of confusability). Neural distinctiveness was defined as the difference between the mean within- and between-category similarity. We found age-related reductions in neural distinctiveness in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices, which were driven by both decreases in within-category similarity and increases in between-category similarity. There were significant positive cross-region correlations between neural distinctiveness in different regions. These correlations were driven by within-category similarities, a finding that indicates that declines in the reliability of neural activity appear to occur in tandem across the brain. These findings suggest that the changes in neural distinctiveness that occur in healthy aging result from changes in both the reliability and confusability of patterns of neural activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Simmonite
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| | - T A Polk
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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21
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Anderson JAE, Grundy JG, Grady CL, Craik FIM, Bialystok E. Bilingualism contributes to reserve and working memory efficiency: Evidence from structural and functional neuroimaging. Neuropsychologia 2021; 163:108071. [PMID: 34715120 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
This study compared brain and behavioral outcomes for monolingual and bilingual older adults who reported no cognitive or memory problems on three types of memory that typically decline in older age, namely, working memory (measured by n-back), item, and associative recognition. The results showed that bilinguals were faster on the two-back working memory task than monolinguals but used a set of frontostriatal regions less than monolinguals. There was no group difference on an item/associative recognition task. In brain structure, gray matter volume and white matter integrity (fractional anisotropy) were generally lower in bilinguals than in monolinguals, but bilinguals had better white matter integrity than monolinguals in the bilateral superior corona radiata and better gray matter density in the left inferior temporal gyrus. These regions may help preserve bilinguals' executive functions despite generally more significant atrophy throughout the brain than monolinguals in that these structures contribute to efficient communication between executive frontal regions and subcortical motor regions, and perceptual pathways. Reliable negative correlations between brain structure and age were only observed in bilinguals, and to the extent that bilinguals (but not monolinguals) had better brain structure, their performance was enhanced. Collectively, the findings provide evidence for reserve in bilingual older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- John A E Anderson
- Carleton University, Departments of Cognitive Science and Psychology, Canada.
| | - John G Grundy
- Iowa State University, Department of Psychology, United States
| | - Cheryl L Grady
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Canada; University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry, Canada; University of Toronto, Department of Psychology, Canada
| | - Fergus I M Craik
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Canada; University of Toronto, Department of Psychology, Canada
| | - Ellen Bialystok
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Canada; York University, Department of Psychology, Canada
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22
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Baena D, Cantero JL, Atienza M. Stability of neural encoding moderates the contribution of sleep and repeated testing to memory consolidation. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2021; 185:107529. [PMID: 34597816 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2021] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
There is evidence suggesting that online consolidation during retrieval-mediated learning interacts with offline consolidation during subsequent sleep to transform memory. Here we investigate whether this interaction persists when retrieval-mediated learning follows post-training sleep and whether the direction of this interaction is conditioned by the quality of encoding resulting from manipulation of the amount of sleep on the previous night. The quality of encoding was determined by computing the degree of similarity between EEG-activity patterns across restudy of face pairs in two groups of young participants, one who slept the last 4 h of the pre-training night, and another who slept 8 h. The offline consolidation was assessed by computing the degree of coupling between slow oscillations (SOs) and spindles (SPs) during post-training sleep, while the online consolidation was evaluated by determining the degree of similarity between EEG-activity patterns recorded during the study phase and during repeated recognition of either the same face pair (i.e., specific similarity) or face pairs sharing sex and profession (i.e., categorical similarity) to evaluate differentiation and generalization, respectively. The study and recognition phases were separated by a night of normal sleep duration. Mixed-effects models revealed that the stability of neural encoding moderated the relationship between sleep- and retrieval-mediated consolidation processes over left frontal regions. For memories showing lower encoding stability, the enhanced SO-SP coupling was associated with increased reinstatement of category-specific encoding-related activity at the expense of content-specific activity, whilst the opposite occurred for memories showing greater encoding stability. Overall, these results suggest that offline consolidation during post-training sleep interacts with online consolidation during retrieval the next day to favor the reorganization of memory contents, by increasing specificity of stronger memories and generalization of the weaker ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Baena
- Laboratory of Functional Neuroscience, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Jose L Cantero
- Laboratory of Functional Neuroscience, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain; CIBERNED, Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Spain
| | - Mercedes Atienza
- Laboratory of Functional Neuroscience, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain; CIBERNED, Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Spain.
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23
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Katsumi Y, Andreano JM, Barrett LF, Dickerson BC, Touroutoglou A. Greater Neural Differentiation in the Ventral Visual Cortex Is Associated with Youthful Memory in Superaging. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:5275-5287. [PMID: 34190976 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Superagers are older adults who maintain youthful memory despite advanced age. Previous studies showed that superagers exhibit greater structural and intrinsic functional brain integrity, which contribute to their youthful memory. However, no studies, to date, have examined brain activity as superagers learn and remember novel information. Here, we analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected from 41 young and 40 older adults while they performed a paired associate visual recognition memory task. Superaging was defined as youthful performance on the long delay free recall of the California Verbal Learning Test. We assessed the fidelity of neural representations as participants encoded and later retrieved a series of word stimuli paired with a face or a scene image. Superagers, like young adults, exhibited more distinct neural representations in the fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus while viewing visual stimuli belonging to different categories (greater neural differentiation) and more similar category representations between encoding and retrieval (greater neural reinstatement), compared with typical older adults. Greater neural differentiation and reinstatement were associated with superior memory performance in all older adults. Given that the fidelity of cortical sensory processing depends on neural plasticity and is trainable, these mechanisms may be potential biomarkers for future interventions to promote successful aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuta Katsumi
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.,Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo 1020083, Japan.,Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Joseph M Andreano
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Bradford C Dickerson
- Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Alexandra Touroutoglou
- Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.,Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
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24
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Abstract
Self-knowledge is a type of personal semantic knowledge that concerns one's self-image and personal identity. It has most often been operationalized as the summary of one's personality traits ("I am a stubborn person"). Interestingly, recent studies have revealed that the neural correlates of self-knowledge can be dissociated from those of general semantic and episodic memory in young adults. However, studies of "dedifferentiation" or loss of distinctiveness of neural representations in ageing suggest that the neural correlates of self-knowledge might be less distinct from those of semantic and episodic memory in older adults. We investigated this question in an event-related potential (ERP) study with 28 young and 26 older adults while they categorised personality traits for their self-relevance (self-knowledge conditions), and their relevance to certain groups of people (general semantic condition). Participants then performed a recognition test for previously seen traits (episodic condition). The amplitude of the late positive component (LPC), associated with episodic recollection processes, differentiated the self-knowledge, general semantic, and episodic conditions in young adults, but not in older adults. However, in older adults, participants with higher composite episodic memory scores had more differentiated LPC amplitudes across experimental conditions. Moreover, consistent with the fact that age-related neural dedifferentiation may be material and region specific, in both age groups some differences between memory types were observed for the N400 component, associated with semantic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that declarative memory subtypes are less distinct in ageing, but that the amount of differentiation varies with episodic memory function.
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25
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Mille J, Brambati SM, Izaute M, Vallet GT. Low-Resolution Neurocognitive Aging and Cognition: An Embodied Perspective. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:687393. [PMID: 34385911 PMCID: PMC8353153 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.687393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Consistent with embodied cognition, a growing evidence in young adults show that sensorimotor processing is at the core of cognition. Considering that this approach predicts direct interaction between sensorimotor processing and cognition, embodied cognition may thus be particularly relevant to study aging, since this population is characterized by concomitant changes in sensorimotor and cognitive processing. The present perspective aims at showing the value and interest to explore normal aging throughout embodiment by focusing on the neurophysiological and cognitive changes occurring in aging. To this end, we report some of the neurophysiological substrates underpinning the perceptual and memory interactions in older adults, from the low and high perceptual processing to the conjunction in the medial temporal lobe. We then explore how these changes could explain more broadly the cognitive changes associated with aging in terms of losses and gains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan Mille
- CNRS, LAPSCO (UMR CNRS 6024), Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | | | - Marie Izaute
- CNRS, LAPSCO (UMR CNRS 6024), Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Guillaume T Vallet
- CNRS, LAPSCO (UMR CNRS 6024), Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
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26
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Age-related dedifferentiation and hyperdifferentiation of perceptual and mnemonic representations. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 106:55-67. [PMID: 34246857 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2020] [Revised: 05/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Preliminary evidence indicates that occipito-temporal activation patterns for different visual stimuli are less distinct in older (OAs) than younger (YAs) adults, suggesting a dedifferentiation of visual representations with aging. Yet, it is unclear if this deficit (1) affects only sensory or also categorical aspects of representations during visual perception (perceptual representations), and (2) affects only perceptual or also mnemonic representations. To investigate these issues, we fMRI-scanned YAs and OAs viewing and then remembering visual scenes. First, using representational similarity analyses, we distinguished sensory vs. categorical features of perceptual representations. We found that, compared to YAs, sensory features in early visual cortex were less differentiated in OAs (i.e., age-related dedifferentiation), replicating previous research, whereas categorical features in anterior temporal lobe (ATL) were more differentiated in OAs. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of an age-related hyperdifferentiation. Second, we assessed the quality of mnemonic representations by measuring encoding-retrieval similarity (ERS) in activation patterns. We found that aging impaired mnemonic representations in early visual cortex and hippocampus but enhanced mnemonic representations in ATL. Thus, both perceptual and mnemonic representations in ATL were enhanced by aging. In sum, our findings suggest that aging impairs visual and mnemonic representations in posterior brain regions but enhances them in anterior regions.
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27
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Tracking Age Differences in Neural Distinctiveness across Representational Levels. J Neurosci 2021; 41:3499-3511. [PMID: 33637559 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2038-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2020] [Revised: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The distinctiveness of neural information representation is crucial for successful memory performance but declines with advancing age. Computational models implicate age-related neural dedifferentiation on the level of item representations, but previous studies mostly focused on age differences of categorical information representation in higher-order visual regions. In an age-comparative fMRI study, we combined univariate analyses and whole-brain searchlight pattern similarity analyses to elucidate age differences in neural distinctiveness at both category and item levels and their relation to memory. Thirty-five younger (18-27 years old) and 32 older (67-75 years old) women and men incidentally encoded images of faces and houses, followed by an old/new recognition memory task. During encoding, age-related neural dedifferentiation was shown as reduced category-selective processing in ventral visual cortex and impoverished item specificity in occipital regions. Importantly, successful subsequent memory performance built on high item stability, that is, high representational similarity between initial and repeated presentation of an item, which was greater in younger than older adults. Overall, we found that differences in representational distinctiveness coexist across representational levels and contribute to interindividual and intraindividual variability in memory success, with item specificity being the strongest contributor. Our results close an important gap in the literature, showing that older adults' neural representation of item-specific information in addition to categorical information is reduced compared with younger adults.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A long-standing hypothesis links age-related cognitive decline to a loss of neural specificity. While previous evidence supports the notion of age-related neural dedifferentiation of category-level information in ventral visual cortex, whether or not age differences exist at the item level was a matter of debate. Here, we observed age group differences at both levels as well as associations between both categorical distinctiveness and item specificity to memory performance, with item specificity being the strongest contributor. Importantly, age differences in occipital item specificity were largely due to reduced item stability across repetitions in older adults. Our results suggest that age differences in neural representations can be observed across the entire cortical hierarchy and are not limited to category-level information.
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28
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Effects of age differences in memory formation on neural mechanisms of consolidation and retrieval. Semin Cell Dev Biol 2021; 116:135-145. [PMID: 33676853 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2021.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Episodic memory decline is a hallmark of cognitive aging and a multifaceted phenomenon. We review studies that target age differences across different memory processing stages, i.e., from encoding to retrieval. The available evidence suggests that age differences during memory formation may affect the quality of memory representations in an age-graded manner with downstream consequences for later processing stages. We argue that low memory quality in combination with age-related neural decline of key regions of the episodic memory network puts older adults in a double jeopardy situation that finally results in broader memory impairments in older compared to younger adults.
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29
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GABA levels in ventral visual cortex decline with age and are associated with neural distinctiveness. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 102:170-177. [PMID: 33770531 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2020] [Revised: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Age-related neural dedifferentiation-a decline in the distinctiveness of neural representations in the aging brain-has been associated with age-related declines in cognitive abilities. But why does neural distinctiveness decline with age? Based on prior work in nonhuman primates and more recent work in humans, we hypothesized that the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) declines with age and is associated with neural dedifferentiation in older adults. To test this hypothesis, we used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure GABA and functional MRI (fMRI) to measure neural distinctiveness in the ventral visual cortex in a set of older and younger participants. Relative to younger adults, older adults exhibited lower GABA levels and less distinct activation patterns for faces and houses in the ventral visual cortex. Furthermore, individual differences in GABA within older adults positively predicted individual differences in neural distinctiveness. These results provide novel support for the view that age-related reductions of GABA contribute to age-related reductions in neural distinctiveness (i.e., neural dedifferentiation) in the human ventral visual cortex.
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30
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Hou J, Jiang T, Fu J, Su B, Wu H, Sun R, Zhang T. The Long-Term Efficacy of Working Memory Training in Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 22 Randomized Controlled Trials. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 75:e174-e188. [PMID: 32507890 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The long-lasting efficacy of working memory (WM) training has been a controversial and still ardently debated issue. In this meta-analysis, the authors explored the long-term effects of WM training in healthy older adults on WM subdomains and abilities outside the WM domain assessed in randomized controlled studies. METHOD A systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, clinicaltrials.gov, and Google Scholar was conducted. Random-effects models were used to quantitatively synthesize the existing data. RESULTS Twenty-two eligible studies were included in the meta-analysis. The mean participant age ranged from 63.77 to 80.1 years. The meta-synthesized long-term effects on updating were 0.45 (95% confidence interval = 0.253-0.648, <6 months: 0.395, 0.171-0.619, ≥6 months: 0.641, 0.223-1.058), on shifting, 0.447 (0.246-0.648, <6 months: 0.448, 0.146-0.75, ≥6 months: 0.446, 0.176-0.716); on inhibition, 0.387 (0.228-0.547, <6 months: 0.248, 0.013-0.484, ≥6 months: 0.504, 0.288-0.712); on maintenance, 0.486 (0.352-0.62, <6 months: 0.52, 0.279-0.761, ≥6 months: 0.471, 0.31-0.63). DISCUSSION The results showed that WM training exerted robust long-term effects on enhancing the WM system and improving processing speed and reasoning in late adulthood. Future studies are needed to use different tasks of the same WM construct to evaluate the WM training benefits, to adopt more ecological tasks or tasks related to daily life, to improve the external validity of WM training, and to identify the optimal implementation strategy for WM training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianhua Hou
- Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory for HIV/AIDS Research, China
| | - Taiyi Jiang
- Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China
| | - Jiangning Fu
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Bin Su
- Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory for HIV/AIDS Research, China
| | - Hao Wu
- Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China
| | - Runsong Sun
- Department of Sociology and Social Work, School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University, China.,National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Tong Zhang
- Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory for HIV/AIDS Research, China
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31
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Karlsson AE, Wehrspaun CC, Sander MC. Item recognition and lure discrimination in younger and older adults are supported by alpha/beta desynchronization. Neuropsychologia 2020; 148:107658. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Revised: 09/10/2020] [Accepted: 10/07/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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32
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Hill PF, King DR, Rugg MD. Age Differences In Retrieval-Related Reinstatement Reflect Age-Related Dedifferentiation At Encoding. Cereb Cortex 2020; 31:106-122. [PMID: 32829396 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2020] [Revised: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related reductions in neural selectivity have been linked to cognitive decline. We examined whether age differences in the strength of retrieval-related cortical reinstatement could be explained by analogous differences in neural selectivity at encoding, and whether reinstatement was associated with memory performance in an age-dependent or an age-independent manner. Young and older adults underwent fMRI as they encoded words paired with images of faces or scenes. During a subsequent scanned memory test participants judged whether test words were studied or unstudied and, for words judged studied, also made a source memory judgment about the associated image category. Using multi-voxel pattern similarity analyses, we identified robust evidence for reduced scene reinstatement in older relative to younger adults. This decline was however largely explained by age differences in neural differentiation at encoding; moreover, a similar relationship between neural selectivity at encoding and retrieval was evident in young participants. The results suggest that, regardless of age, the selectivity with which events are neurally processed at the time of encoding can determine the strength of retrieval-related cortical reinstatement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul F Hill
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235.,School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080
| | - Danielle R King
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235.,School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, 1600 Viceroy Dr. #800, Dallas, TX 75235.,School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6363 Forest Park Rd 7th floor suite 749, Dallas TX 75235.,School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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33
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Weeks JC, Grady CL, Hasher L, Buchsbaum BR. Holding On to the Past: Older Adults Show Lingering Neural Activation of No-Longer-Relevant Items in Working Memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:1946-1962. [PMID: 32573381 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Goal-relevant information can be maintained in working memory over a brief delay interval to guide an upcoming decision. There is also evidence suggesting the existence of a complementary process: namely, the ability to suppress information that is no longer relevant to ongoing task goals. Moreover, this ability to suppress or inhibit irrelevant information appears to decline with age. In this study, we compared younger and older adults undergoing fMRI on a working memory task designed to address whether the modulation of neural representations of relevant and no-longer-relevant items during a delay interval is related to age and overall task performance. Following from the theoretical predictions of the inhibitory deficit hypothesis of aging, we hypothesized that older adults would show higher activation of no-longer-relevant items during a retention delay compared to young adults and that higher activation of these no-longer-relevant items would predict worse recognition memory accuracy for relevant items. Our results support this prediction and more generally demonstrate the importance of goal-driven modulation of neural activity in successful working memory maintenance. Furthermore, we showed that the largest age differences in the regulation of category-specific pattern activity during working memory maintenance were seen throughout the medial temporal lobe and prominently in the hippocampus, further establishing the importance of "long-term memory" retrieval mechanisms in the context of high-load working memory tasks that place large demands on attentional selection mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer C Weeks
- University of Toronto.,Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Cheryl L Grady
- University of Toronto.,Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lynn Hasher
- University of Toronto.,Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Bradley R Buchsbaum
- University of Toronto.,Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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34
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St-Laurent M, Buchsbaum BR. How Multiple Retrievals Affect Neural Reactivation in Young and Older Adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2020; 74:1086-1100. [PMID: 31155678 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbz075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Aging can reduce the specificity with which memory episodes are represented as distributed patterns of brain activity. It remains unclear, however, whether repeated encoding and retrieval of stimuli modulate this decline. Memory repetition is thought to promote semanticization, a transformative process during which episodic memory becomes gradually decontextualized and abstracted. Because semantic memory is considered more resilient to aging than context-rich episodic memory, we hypothesized that repeated retrieval would affect cortical reinstatement differently in young versus older adults. METHODS We reanalyzed data from young and older adults undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging while repeatedly viewing and recalling short videos. We derived trial-unique multivariate measures of similarity between video-specific brain activity patterns elicited at perception and at recall, which we compared between age groups at each repetition. RESULTS With repetition, memory representation became gradually more distinct from perception in young adults, as reinstatement specificity converged downward toward levels observed in the older group. In older adults, alternative representations that were item-specific but orthogonal to patterns elicited at perception became more salient with repetition. DISCUSSION Repetition transformed dominant patterns of memory representation away and orthogonally from perception in young and older adults, respectively. Although distinct, both changes are consistent with repetition-induced semanticization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie St-Laurent
- Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec
| | - Bradley R Buchsbaum
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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35
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Neural Differentiation is Moderated by Age in Scene-Selective, But Not Face-Selective, Cortical Regions. eNeuro 2020; 7:ENEURO.0142-20.2020. [PMID: 32341120 PMCID: PMC7242814 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0142-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 04/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The aging brain is characterized by neural dedifferentiation, an apparent decrease in the functional selectivity of category-selective cortical regions. Age-related reductions in neural differentiation have been proposed to play a causal role in cognitive aging. Recent findings suggest, however, that age-related dedifferentiation is not equally evident for all stimulus categories and, additionally, that the relationship between neural differentiation and cognitive performance is not moderated by age. In light of these findings, in the present experiment, younger and older human adults (males and females) underwent fMRI as they studied words paired with images of scenes or faces before a subsequent memory task. Neural selectivity was measured in two scene-selective (parahippocampal place area (PPA) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC)] and two face-selective [fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA)] regions using both a univariate differentiation index and multivoxel pattern similarity analysis. Both methods provided highly convergent results, which revealed evidence of age-related reductions in neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective but not face-selective cortical regions. Additionally, neural differentiation in the PPA demonstrated a positive, age-invariant relationship with subsequent source memory performance (recall of the image category paired with each recognized test word). These findings extend prior findings suggesting that age-related neural dedifferentiation is not a ubiquitous phenomenon, and that the specificity of neural responses to scenes is predictive of subsequent memory performance independently of age.
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36
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Mnemonic discrimination in patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy relates to similarity and number of events stored in memory. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2020; 169:107177. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2019] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 02/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
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37
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Koch C, Li SC, Polk TA, Schuck NW. Effects of aging on encoding of walking direction in the human brain. Neuropsychologia 2020; 141:107379. [PMID: 32088219 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Human aging is characterized by impaired spatial cognition and reductions in the distinctiveness of category-specific fMRI activation patterns. Yet, little is known about age-related decline in neural distinctiveness of information that humans use when navigating spatial environments. Here, we asked whether neural tuning functions of walking direction are broadened in older versus younger adults. To test this idea, we developed a novel method that allowed us to investigate changes in fMRI-measured pattern similarity while participants navigated in different directions in a virtual spatial navigation task. We expected that directional tuning functions would be broader in older adults, and thus activation patterns that reflect neighboring directions would be less distinct as compared to non-adjacent directions. Because loss of distinctiveness leads to more confusions when information is read out by downstream areas, we analyzed predictions of a decoder trained on directional fMRI patterns and asked (1) whether decoder confusions between two directions increase proportionally to their angular similarity, (2) and how this effect may differ between age groups. Evidence for tuning-function-like signals was found in the retrosplenial complex and early visual cortex, reflecting the primarily visual nature of directional information in our task. Significant age differences in tuning width, however, were only found in early visual cortex, suggesting that less precise visual information could lead to worse directional signals in older adults. At the same time, only directional information encoded in RSC, but not visual cortex, correlated with memory on task. These results shed new light on neural mechanisms underlying age-related spatial navigation impairments and introduce a novel approach to measure tuning specificity using fMRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Koch
- Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Shu-Chen Li
- Faculty of Psychology, Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany; Centre for tactile internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany
| | - Thad A Polk
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Nicolas W Schuck
- Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Aging Research, Berlin, Germany, and London, United Kingdom
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38
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Abstract
This review focuses on possible contributions of neural dedifferentiation to age-related cognitive decline. Neural dedifferentiation is held to reflect a breakdown in the functional specificity of brain regions and networks that compromises the fidelity of neural representations supporting episodic memory and related cognitive functions. The evidence for age-related dedifferentiation is robust when it is operationalized as neural selectivity for different categories of perceptual stimuli or as decreased segregation or modularity of resting-state functional brain networks. Neural dedifferentiation for perceptual categories appears to demonstrate a negative, age-invariant relationship with performance on tests of memory and fluid processing. Whether this pattern extends to network-level measures of dedifferentiation cannot currently be determined due to insufficient evidence. The existing data highlight the importance of further examination of neural dedifferentiation as a factor contributing to episodic memory and to cognitive performance more generally.
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39
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Folville A, Bahri MA, Delhaye E, Salmon E, D’Argembeau A, Bastin C. Age-related differences in the neural correlates of vivid remembering. Neuroimage 2020; 206:116336. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2019] [Revised: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
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40
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Dennis NA, Overman AA, Gerver CR, McGraw KE, Rowley MA, Salerno JM. Different types of associative encoding evoke differential processing in both younger and older adults: Evidence from univariate and multivariate analyses. Neuropsychologia 2019; 135:107240. [PMID: 31682927 PMCID: PMC6951809 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2019] [Revised: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 10/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Age-related deficits in associative processing are well-documented (e.g., Naveh-Benjamin, 2000) and have been assumed to be the result of a general deficit that affects all types of binding. However, recent behavioral research has indicated that the visual configuration of the information that is presented to older adults influences the degree to which this binding deficit is exhibited by older adults (Overman, Dennis et al, 2019; Overman, Dennis, et al., 2018). The purpose of the present study was to further clarify the neural underpinnings of the associative deficit in aging and to examine whether functional activity at encoding differs with respect to the visual configuration and the type of associative being encoded. Using both univariate and multi-voxel pattern analysis, we found differences in both the magnitude of activation and pattern of neural responses associated with the type of association encoded (item-item and item-context). Specifically, our results suggest that, when controlling for stimuli composition, patterns of activation in sensory and frontal regions within the associative encoding network are able to distinguish between different types of associations. With respect to the MTL, multivariate results suggest that only patterns of activation in the PrC in older, but not younger adults, can distinguish between associations types. These findings extend prior work regarding the neural basis of associative memory in young and older adults, and extends the predictions of the binding of item and context model (BIC; Diana, Yonelinas, Ranganath, 2007) to older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy A Dennis
- The Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
| | - Amy A Overman
- The Department of Psychology, Elon University, NC, USA
| | - Courtney R Gerver
- The Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
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41
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Sommer VR, Fandakova Y, Grandy TH, Shing YL, Werkle-Bergner M, Sander MC. Neural Pattern Similarity Differentially Relates to Memory Performance in Younger and Older Adults. J Neurosci 2019; 39:8089-8099. [PMID: 31399532 PMCID: PMC6786819 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0197-19.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2019] [Revised: 07/26/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related memory decline is associated with changes in neural functioning, but little is known about how aging affects the quality of information representation in the brain. Whereas a long-standing hypothesis of the aging literature links cognitive impairments to less distinct neural representations in old age ("neural dedifferentiation"), memory studies have shown that overlapping neural representations of different studied items are beneficial for memory performance. In an electroencephalography (EEG) study, we addressed the question whether distinctiveness or similarity between patterns of neural activity supports memory differentially in younger and older adults. We analyzed between-item neural pattern similarity in 50 younger (19-27 years old) and 63 older (63-75 years old) male and female human adults who repeatedly studied and recalled scene-word associations using a mnemonic imagery strategy. We compared the similarity of spatiotemporal EEG frequency patterns during initial encoding in relation to subsequent recall performance. The within-person association between memory success and pattern similarity differed between age groups: For older adults, better memory performance was linked to higher similarity early in the encoding trials, whereas young adults benefited from lower similarity between earlier and later periods during encoding, which might reflect their better success in forming unique memorable mental images of the joint picture-word pairs. Our results advance the understanding of the representational properties that give rise to subsequent memory, as well as how these properties may change in the course of aging.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Declining memory abilities are one of the most evident limitations for humans when growing older. Despite recent advances of our understanding of how the brain represents and stores information in distributed activation patterns, little is known about how the quality of information representation changes during aging and thus affects memory performance. We investigated how the similarity between neural representations relates to subsequent memory in younger and older adults. We present novel evidence that the interaction of pattern similarity and memory performance differs between age groups: Older adults benefited from higher similarity during early encoding, whereas young adults benefited from lower similarity between early and later encoding. These results provide insights into the nature of memory and age-related memory deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Verena R Sommer
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
| | - Yana Fandakova
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
| | - Thomas H Grandy
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
| | - Yee Lee Shing
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
- Institute of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60629 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Markus Werkle-Bergner
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
| | - Myriam C Sander
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany, and
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42
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Bartsch LM, Loaiza VM, Jäncke L, Oberauer K, Lewis-Peacock JA. Dissociating refreshing and elaboration and their impacts on memory. Neuroimage 2019; 199:585-597. [PMID: 31207338 PMCID: PMC11158115 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.06.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Revised: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Maintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea M Bartsch
- University of Zurich and University Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, Switzerland.
| | | | - Lutz Jäncke
- University of Zurich and University Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, Switzerland
| | - Klaus Oberauer
- University of Zurich and University Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, Switzerland
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43
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The relation between brain signal complexity and task difficulty on an executive function task. Neuroimage 2019; 198:104-113. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2018] [Revised: 05/15/2019] [Accepted: 05/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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44
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Feng K, Zhao X, Liu J, Cai Y, Ye Z, Chen C, Xue G. Spaced Learning Enhances Episodic Memory by Increasing Neural Pattern Similarity Across Repetitions. J Neurosci 2019; 39:5351-5360. [PMID: 31036763 PMCID: PMC6607761 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2741-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Revised: 04/19/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Spaced learning has been shown consistently to benefit memory compared with massed learning, yet the neural representations and processes underlying the spacing effect are still poorly understood. In particular, two influential models (i.e., the encoding variability hypothesis and the study-phase retrieval hypothesis) could both model behavioral performance very well, but they make opposite hypotheses regarding the spacing effect's neural mechanisms. The present study attempted to provide empirical neural evidence to adjudicate these competing hypotheses. Using spatiotemporal pattern similarity (STPS) analysis of EEG data, this study investigated whether and how repetition lags (massed/short-spaced/long-spaced) modulated the STPS's contribution to episodic memory encoding in male and female human participants. The results revealed that greater item-specific STPS in the right frontal electrodes at 543-727 ms after stimulus onset was associated with better memory performance. More importantly, this STPS was larger under the spaced-learning condition than the massed-learning condition and partially mediated the spacing effect on memory performance. In addition, we found that massed learning was associated with stronger repetition suppression in the N400 component that reflected momentary retrieval strength, but reduced activity in the late positive component that was associated with memory retrieval. These results suggest that spaced learning improves long-term memory by increasing retrieval effort and enhancing the pattern reinstatement of prior neural representations, which may be achieved by reducing the momentary retrieval strength as the extended repetition lags might help to eliminate the residual representation in working memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT As one of the most ubiquitous and fundamental phenomena in the history of memory research, the spacing effect provides an important window into understanding how enduring memory is formed in the brain and how different practice strategies could modulate these mechanisms to affect memory performance. By leveraging the neural representational analysis on scalp EEG data, the current study provides the first empirical data to show that spaced learning enhances memory by improving the spatiotemporal similarity that occurs at a late time window. Our results support the study-phase retrieval hypothesis but not the encoding variability hypothesis and emphasize the role of neural pattern reinstatement in strengthening memory via repeated study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kanyin Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
| | - Xiao Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
| | - Jing Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
| | - Ying Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
| | - Zhifang Ye
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
| | - Chuansheng Chen
- Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697
| | - Gui Xue
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, and
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45
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Koen JD, Rugg MD. Neural Dedifferentiation in the Aging Brain. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:547-559. [PMID: 31174975 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 164] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2018] [Revised: 04/22/2019] [Accepted: 04/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Many cognitive abilities decline with age even in the absence of detectable pathology. Recent evidence indicates that age-related neural dedifferentiation, operationalized in terms of neural selectivity, may contribute to this decline. We review here work exploring the relationship between neural dedifferentiation, cognition, and age. Compelling evidence for age effects on neural selectivity comes from both non-human animal and human research. However, current data suggest that age does not moderate the observed relationships between neural dedifferentiation and cognitive performance. We propose that functionally significant variance in measures of neural dedifferentiation reflects both age-dependent and age-independent factors. We further propose that the effects of age on neural dedifferentiation do not exclusively reflect detrimental consequences of aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua D Koen
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75235, USA
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46
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Fandakova Y, Leckey S, Driver CC, Bunge SA, Ghetti S. Neural specificity of scene representations is related to memory performance in childhood. Neuroimage 2019; 199:105-113. [PMID: 31121295 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2018] [Revised: 05/16/2019] [Accepted: 05/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Successful memory encoding is supported by medial temporal, retrosplenial, and occipital regions, which show developmental differences in recruitment from childhood to adulthood. However, little is known about the extent to which neural specificity in these brain regions, or the distinctiveness with which sensory information is represented, continues to develop during middle childhood and how it contributes to memory performance. The present study used multivariate pattern analysis to examine the distinctiveness of different scene representations in 169 children and 31 adults, and its relation to memory performance. Most children provided data over up to three measurement occasions between 8 and 15 years (267 total scans), allowing us to examine changes in memory and neural specificity over time. Memory performance was lower in children than in adults, and increased in children over time. Different scenes presented during memory encoding could be reliably decoded from parahippocampal, lateral occipital, and retrosplenial regions in children and adults. Neural specificity in children was similar to adults, and did not change reliably over time. Among children, higher neural specificity in scene-processing regions was associated with better memory concurrently. These results suggest that the distinctiveness with which incoming information is represented is important for memory performance in childhood, but other processes operating on these representations support developmental improvements in memory performance over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yana Fandakova
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany; Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, 132 Barker Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
| | - Sarah Leckey
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Charles C Driver
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Silvia A Bunge
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, 132 Barker Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 3407 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Simona Ghetti
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95616, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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The Relationship between Age, Neural Differentiation, and Memory Performance. J Neurosci 2018; 39:149-162. [PMID: 30389841 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1498-18.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2018] [Revised: 10/21/2018] [Accepted: 10/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Healthy 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 dedifferentiation 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 years) and older (64-75 years) male and female humans underwent fMRI scanning while viewing images of objects and scenes before 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 preferred versus nonpreferred category of an ROI (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, influence neural differentiation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Aging is associated with neural dedifferentiation-reduced neural selectivity in "category-selective" cortical brain regions-which has been proposed to contribute to 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-selective (PPA) and object-selective (LOC) cortical regions while participants studied images for a subsequent memory test. Age-related reductions were observed for the PPA, but not for 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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Cai Y, Urgolites Z, Wood J, Chen C, Li S, Chen A, Xue G. Distinct neural substrates for visual short-term memory of actions. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 39:4119-4133. [PMID: 29947094 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2018] [Revised: 04/23/2018] [Accepted: 05/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Fundamental theories of human cognition have long posited that the short-term maintenance of actions is supported by one of the "core knowledge" systems of human visual cognition, yet its neural substrates are still not well understood. In particular, it is unclear whether the visual short-term memory (VSTM) of actions has distinct neural substrates or, as proposed by the spatio-object architecture of VSTM, shares them with VSTM of objects and spatial locations. In two experiments, we tested these two competing hypotheses by directly contrasting the neural substrates for VSTM of actions with those for objects and locations. Our results showed that the bilateral middle temporal cortex (MT) was specifically involved in VSTM of actions because its activation and its functional connectivity with the frontal-parietal network (FPN) were only modulated by the memory load of actions, but not by that of objects/agents or locations. Moreover, the brain regions involved in the maintenance of spatial location information (i.e., superior parietal lobule, SPL) was also recruited during the maintenance of actions, consistent with the temporal-spatial nature of actions. Meanwhile, the frontoparietal network (FPN) was commonly involved in all types of VSTM and showed flexible functional connectivity with the domain-specific regions, depending on the current working memory tasks. Together, our results provide clear evidence for a distinct neural system for maintaining actions in VSTM, which supports the core knowledge system theory and the domain-specific and domain-general architectures of VSTM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.,Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhisen Urgolites
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California, 92093
| | - Justin Wood
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089
| | - Chuansheng Chen
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior University of California, Irvine, California, 92697
| | - Siyao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.,Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China
| | - Antao Chen
- School of Psychology, Southeast University, Chongqing, 400700, People's Republic of China
| | - Gui Xue
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.,Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China
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Abstract
Purpose of Review The integration of information across sensory modalities into unified percepts is a fundamental sensory process upon which a multitude of cognitive processes are based. We review the body of literature exploring aging-related changes in audiovisual integration published over the last five years. Specifically, we review the impact of changes in temporal processing, the influence of the effectiveness of sensory inputs, the role of working memory, and the newer studies of intra-individual variability during these processes. Recent Findings Work in the last five years on bottom-up influences of sensory perception has garnered significant attention. Temporal processing, a driving factors of multisensory integration, has now been shown to decouple with multisensory integration in aging, despite their co-decline with aging. The impact of stimulus effectiveness also changes with age, where older adults show maximal benefit from multisensory gain at high signal-to-noise ratios. Following sensory decline, high working memory capacities have now been shown to be somewhat of a protective factor against age-related declines in audiovisual speech perception, particularly in noise. Finally, newer research is emerging focusing on the general intra-individual variability observed with aging. Summary Overall, the studies of the past five years have replicated and expanded on previous work that highlights the role of bottom-up sensory changes with aging and their influence on audiovisual integration, as well as the top-down influence of working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah H Baum
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington
| | - Ryan Stevenson
- Department of Psychology, Western University.,Brain and Mind Institute, Western University.,Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University.,Program in Neuroscience, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University.,Centre for Vision Research, York University
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