Age-related neural dedifferentiation for individual stimuli: an across-participant pattern similarity analysis

Age-related neural dedifferentiation - reductions in the regional specificity and precision of neural representations - is proposed to compromise the ability of older adults to form sufficiently distinct neural representations to support episodic memory encoding. The computational model that spurred investigations of age-related neural dedifferentiation initially characterized this phenomenon as a reduction in the specificity of neural patterns for individual items or stimuli. Most investigations have focused on reductions in neural differentiation for patterns of neural activity associated with category-level information, such as reduced neural selectivity between categories of visual stimuli (e.g., scenes, objects, and faces). Here, I report a novel across-participant pattern similarity analysis method to measure neural distinctiveness for individual stimuli that were presented to participants on a single occasion. Measures of item-level pattern similarity during encoding showed a graded positive subsequent memory effect in younger, with no significant subsequent memory effect in older adults. These results suggest that age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural patterns for individual stimuli during age differences in memory encoding. Moreover, a measure of category-level similarity demonstrated a significant subsequent memory effect associated with item recognition (regardless of an object source memory detail), whereas the effect in older was associated with source memory. These results converge with predictions of computational models of dedifferentiation showing age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural patterns across multiple levels of representation.