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Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
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Word retrieval failures in old age: the relationship between structure and function.

Meredith A Shafto1, Emmanuel A Stamatakis, Phyllis P Tam

  • 1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. mshafto@csl.psychol.cam.ac.uk

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|August 1, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Older adults experience more word-finding failures, like tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs). Brain imaging shows reduced neural activity in older adults during TOTs, linked to brain atrophy, hindering word retrieval.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuroimaging
  • Aging Research

Background:

  • Normal aging is associated with increased word-finding failures, termed tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs).
  • Behavioral studies classify TOTs as phonological retrieval failures.
  • Previous research links age-related TOT increases to left insula atrophy, a region vital for phonological production.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural correlates of word-finding failures (TOTs) in younger and older adults.
  • To examine the relationship between age, gray matter integrity, and brain activity during successful naming versus TOT states.
  • To explore age-related differences in neural modulation during retrieval failures.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan younger and older adults during a picture naming task.
  • Brain activity was analyzed during successful naming, TOT states, and "don't know" responses.
  • Gray matter density was assessed and correlated with neural activity and TOT frequency.

Main Results:

  • Left insula activity during successful naming was unaffected by age or gray matter integrity.
  • Age-related differences in neural activity emerged specifically during TOT states.
  • Younger adults showed increased left insula activity during TOTs compared to successful naming, a pattern not observed in older adults.
  • Older adults exhibited less left insula activity during TOTs compared to younger adults and "don't know" responses.
  • Lower gray matter density correlated with reduced TOT-related activity across all participants.
  • In older adults, decreased activity during TOTs was associated with higher rates of TOT experiences.

Conclusions:

  • Word production processes are not universally impaired by age, despite widespread atrophy.
  • Age-related atrophy in regions like the left insula may impair the ability to modulate neural responses needed to overcome word retrieval failures.
  • Neural mechanisms related to age significantly impact older adults' word retrieval capabilities more than younger adults'.