Reduced memory-related ongoing oscillatory activity in healthy older adults

Age-related impairments in episodic memory have been linked to alterations in encoding-induced neural activity. In young individuals, even prestimulus activity has been shown to influence the encoding of an upcoming stimulus, with ongoing theta and beta oscillations being predictive of subsequent recognition. The present study investigated if these memory-related ongoing oscillations are also affected by aging. In an EEG experiment, healthy older and young individuals performed an encoding task with a subsequent recognition test on picture and word stimuli. The group of younger participants showed an increased oscillatory activity in the lower frequency range (ranging from 3 to 17 Hz) in the pre- and post-stimulus period compared with the older adults. Only in young participants, ongoing beta power during encoding was related to later memory in both stimulus categories, whereas in older participants, this effect was diminished. Interestingly, there was no general age-related decrease in recognition performance. These results indicate that ongoing low beta oscillations might constitute a functional indicator of cognitive aging that reveals itself even before a strong decline in behavioral performance is noticeable, and that could be a potential target for neuromodulatory interventions.