Cortico-hippocampal interactions underlie schema-supported memory encoding in older adults.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Episodic memory typically declines with age, but semantic knowledge, like schemas, can mitigate this deficit.
• Schema congruency enhances memory, with a larger effect observed in older adults (OAs).
• Previous neuroimaging studies linked schema use to ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), angular gyrus (AG), and hippocampus (HPC), primarily in young adults (YAs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms by which schemas enhance episodic memory in OAs.
• To compare cortico-hippocampal interactions during schema-guided memory encoding in OAs and YAs.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine brain activity during the encoding of scene-object pairs with varying schema congruency.
• Participants included both older adults (OAs) and young adults (YAs).
• Memory for encoded objects was tested the following day.

Main Results:

• Schema congruency significantly enhanced object memory in both YAs and OAs, with a more substantial effect in OAs.
• A vmPFC-HPC interaction during encoding predicted enhanced memory for congruent objects in both age groups.
• An AG-HPC interaction was uniquely associated with enhanced memory for congruent objects in OAs, suggesting greater reliance on semantic knowledge.

Conclusions:

• Schemas boost episodic memory encoding through distinct cortico-hippocampal interactions that differ between age groups.
• OAs utilize specific neural pathways, including AG-HPC interactions, to leverage semantic knowledge for memory enhancement.
• Findings reveal age-related differences in the neural basis of schema-guided episodic memory.