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A Comprehensive Protocol for Manual Segmentation of the Medial Temporal Lobe Structures
Published on: July 2, 2014
Healthy aging attenuates task-related specialization in the human medial temporal lobe
Thomas Z Ramsøy1, Matthew G Liptrot, Arnold Skimminge
1Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark. tzramsoy@gmail.com
Neurobiology of Aging
|November 8, 2011
Summary
Normal aging reduces medial temporal lobe (MTL) sensitivity to memory content, particularly during recognition. This age-related attenuation in content specificity affects memory performance in older adults.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Aging
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Episodic memory decline is linked to normal aging, but the neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear.
- Functional neuroimaging studies of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in aging have yielded inconsistent findings.
- Previous research indicated greater MTL activation for object versus position encoding in young adults.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the heightened MTL activation for object encoding observed in young adults changes with age.
- To examine age-related differences in MTL activation during memory encoding and recognition of objects versus positions.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in 54 healthy adults (18-81 years).
- Participants performed an encoding and recognition task involving objects and positions.
- Region of interest (ROI) analysis focused on MTL structures (hippocampus, amygdala, etc.) examining blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes.
Main Results:
- Aging negatively impacted memory performance similarly for objects and positions.
- Greater activation for object stimuli in the MTL was attenuated in older individuals, especially during recognition.
- Age-related attenuation in content specificity was most pronounced in the recognition stage across most MTL ROIs.
Conclusions:
- Memory-related processing in the MTL becomes less sensitive to content with normal aging.
- This age-related attenuation in content specificity, particularly during recognition, contributes to memory changes in older adults.
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