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Structural brain correlates of associative memory in older adults
Nina Becker1, Erika J Laukka2, Grégoria Kalpouzos2
1Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany; Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Neuroimage
|June 10, 2015
Summary
Older adults show significant variability in associative memory, which is linked to brain structure. Larger gray matter volumes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are associated with better associative memory performance in healthy aging.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Associative memory, the ability to link distinct pieces of information, declines significantly with age.
- Individual differences in associative memory are substantial in older adults, despite overall decline.
- Previous research implicates the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) in associative memory, but the role of brain structure is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between regional gray matter volumes and individual differences in associative memory in healthy older adults.
- To differentiate the neural correlates of associative memory from item memory.
Main Methods:
- Fifty-four healthy older adults (age ≥ 60 years) participated.
- Participants intentionally learned face-scene pairs and underwent recognition tasks for single items (faces, scenes) and associative pairs.
- Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) region-of-interest (ROI) analyses were used to assess gray matter volumes, controlling for item memory.
Main Results:
- Significant variability in associative memory was observed, primarily due to differences in false alarm rates.
- Associative memory performance was independent of single item memory.
- Better associative memory was associated with larger gray matter volumes in the left and right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC).
Conclusions:
- The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in the intentional learning of associations.
- Structural differences in the PFC may underlie individual variations in associative memory abilities among older adults.
- Organizational and strategic processes supported by the PFC likely distinguish older adults with high versus low associative memory capacity.
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