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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 21, 2025

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Age group differences in learning-related activity reflect task stage, not learning stage.

Jenna L Merenstein1, Jessica R Petok2, Ilana J Bennett1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521 United States of America.

Behavioural Brain Research
|September 9, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Older adults show similar brain activity to younger adults for implicit associative learning (IAL) when matched for learning stage, not task stage. Age-related differences in brain activity may reflect task timing, not learning ability.

Keywords:
AgingAssociative learningBasal gangliaFMRIHippocampus

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Aging
  • Neuroimaging

Background:

  • Healthy aging is associated with declines in implicit associative learning (IAL).
  • Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies linked IAL deficits in older adults to different brain activity patterns compared to younger adults.
  • These prior findings may be confounded by differences in task performance stages between age groups.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate age-related differences in the neural mechanisms of IAL.
  • To disentangle the effects of task stage from learning stage on brain activity during IAL.
  • To clarify whether observed age differences in IAL reflect performance timing or genuine learning capacity.

Main Methods:

  • Acquired fMRI data from 28 younger (mean age 20.8 years) and 22 older (mean age 73.6 years) healthy adults.
  • Participants completed the Triplets Learning Task, learning associations between cue and target locations with high (HF) or low (LF) frequency.
  • Analyzed brain activity, matching participants by task stage and then by learning stage to compare neural substrates of IAL across age groups.

Main Results:

  • When matched for task stage, older adults exhibited poorer learning and greater IAL-related activity in the hippocampus (early stage) and globus pallidus (late stage) compared to younger adults.
  • However, when matched for learning stage, no significant differences in learning performance or IAL-related brain activity were found between the age groups.
  • This suggests that older adults engage similar brain regions as younger adults when learning associations, but their learning emerges later.

Conclusions:

  • Observed age-related differences in neural activity during IAL tasks may be attributed to differences in task stage progression, not fundamental learning deficits.
  • Older adults demonstrate comparable neural engagement to younger adults for IAL when learning onset is considered.
  • These findings challenge previous interpretations of age-related IAL deficits and highlight the importance of considering learning progression in neuroimaging studies of aging.