Neural Correlates of Enhanced Memory for Meaningful Associations with Age

Tarek Amer; Kelly S Giovanello; Daniel R Nichol; Lynn Hasher; Cheryl L Grady

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhy334

Neural Correlates of Enhanced Memory for Meaningful Associations with Age

Cereb Cortex. 2019 Dec 17;29(11):4568-4579. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy334.

Authors

Tarek Amer^{1

2

3}, Kelly S Giovanello^{4

5}, Daniel R Nichol², Lynn Hasher^{1

2}, Cheryl L Grady^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, USA.
² Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁵ Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, USA.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that age differences in associative memory are attenuated for associations that are consistent with prior knowledge. Such knowledge structures have traditionally been associated with the default network (DN), which also shows reduced modulation with age. In the present study, we investigated whether DN activity and connectivity patterns could account for this age-related effect. Younger and older adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging as they learned realistic and unrealistic prices of common grocery items. Both groups showed greater activity in the DN during the encoding of realistic, relative to unrealistic, prices. Moreover, DN activity at encoding and retrieval and its connectivity with an attention control network at encoding were associated with enhanced memory for realistic prices. Finally, older adults showed overactivation of control regions during retrieval of realistic prices relative to younger adults. Our findings suggest that DN activity and connectivity patterns (traditionally viewed as indicators of cognitive failure with age), and additional recruitment of control regions, might underlie older adults' enhanced memory for meaningful associations.

Keywords: aging; associative memory; cognitive control; default network.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aging / physiology*
Aging / psychology*
Association Learning / physiology*
Brain / physiology*
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory / physiology*
Middle Aged
Neural Pathways / physiology
Young Adult

Grants and funding

MOP89769/CIHR/Canada