Decreased neural specialization in old adults on a working memory task

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Aging
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• Older adults exhibit reduced neural specialization in the ventral visual cortex during passive viewing.
• The impact of working memory demands on this neural specialization in aging is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if neural specialization for visual stimuli (faces and houses) is maintained in older adults during a working memory task.
• To determine if reduced visual cortex specialization in older adults is associated with compensatory increases in prefrontal cortex activation.

Main Methods:

• Participants (older and younger adults) performed a working memory task involving encoding and maintaining images of faces or houses.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity during the task.

Main Results:

• Neural specialization for faces and houses was less pronounced in older adults compared to younger adults.
• Older adults demonstrated increased activation in the middle and inferior frontal cortex relative to younger adults.

Conclusions:

• Neural specialization in the ventral visual cortex is diminished in older adults, even when engaged in working memory tasks.
• Increased prefrontal cortex activation in older adults may represent a compensatory mechanism for reduced visual specialization.