Age-related reorganization of encoding networks directly influences subsequent recognition memory

• Published in: Brain research. Cognitive brain research Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 8 - 18
• Main Authors: Tisserand, Danielle J., McIntosh, Anthony R., van der Veen, Freddy M., Backes, Walter H., Jolles, Jelle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.09.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aging - physiology; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - blood supply; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Learning. Memory; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Medial temporal lobe; Memory; Middle Aged; Nerve Net - blood supply; Nerve Net - physiology; Oxygen - blood; Prefrontal cortex; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Human; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Prefrontal cortex; Neural basis of behavior; Memory; Medial temporal lobe; Temporal lobe; Recognition memory; Coding; Developmental stage; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Age; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 0926-6410
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.04.016

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to link performance-related brain activity during two word encoding tasks to subsequent recognition for those words in young and older adults. There were no significant group differences in performance during encoding, but the young subjects performed better than the older at the recognition task. Performance-related brain networks strongly differed between the two groups. In young subjects, there were two networks associated with performance, one related to encoding (mainly involving premotor and parietal brain regions) and the other to recognition (involving middle frontal, and lateral and medial temporal regions), whereas the network for older subjects (including prefrontal, premotor, lateral and medial temporal regions) was associated both with encoding and recognition. Areas in this network strongly overlapped with those supporting recognition in the young subjects (e.g., medial temporal lobe), suggesting that older subjects may have recruited these areas to maintain performance during encoding. However, this reorganization of brain networks appears to have come at the cost of subsequent recognition.