Age-associated increase in mnemonic strategy use is linked to prefrontal cortex development.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• Memory functioning evolves significantly from childhood to adulthood.
• Elaborative strategy use, crucial for memory recall, increases with age.
• Prefrontal cortex (PFC) integrity, especially the dorsolateral PFC, is vital for strategy use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between prefrontal cortex (PFC) volume and spontaneous strategy use in individuals aged 5-25.
• To determine if age-related structural changes in the PFC correlate with the development of memory strategies.

Main Methods:

• Assessed semantic clustering during recall using the California Verbal Learning Task children's version (CVLT-C).
• Measured prefrontal cortex (PFC) regional volumes from structural brain images of 120 participants.
• Correlated PFC volumes with age and semantic clustering scores.

Main Results:

• Observed an age-associated increase in semantic clustering (strategy use).
• Found an age-associated decrease in prefrontal cortex (PFC) volumes.
• Demonstrated that smaller PFC volume was linked to increased semantic clustering.
• Identified the right dorsolateral PFC volume as a partial mediator between age and strategy use.

Conclusions:

• Prefrontal cortex (PFC) maturation supports the development of spontaneous memory strategy use.
• These findings highlight changing brain-behavior relationships during development.
• Structural development of the PFC is critical for enhancing memory functioning in youth.