Age-dependent differences in the neural mechanisms supporting long-term declarative memories.

Autobiographical memories enable us to mentally reconstruct and relive past events, which is essential for one's personal identity. Unfortunately, this complex memory system is susceptible to age-related deterioration, possibly changing the way episodic information is being processed in older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate whether age influences the neural activity associated with content (episodic versus semantic) and remoteness (recent versus remote) of memories. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy older and young adults, we found significant age-dependent differences in the neural networks underlying memory content but not remoteness. Our data suggest an age-associated functional reorganization in the neural networks underlying long-term declarative memory. Relative increase in activity of posterior brain regions could reflect changes in visuospatial processing during episodic memory retrieval in older adults.

[1]  B. McNaughton,et al.  Declarative memory consolidation in humans: a prospective functional magnetic resonance imaging study. , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[2]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  Priming of semantic autobiographical knowledge: A case study of retrograde amnesia , 1988, Brain and Cognition.

[3]  Gereon R. Fink,et al.  Recollections of one’s own past: the effects of aging and gender on the neural mechanisms of episodic autobiographical memory , 2005, Anatomy and Embryology.

[4]  Pascale Piolino,et al.  Episodic and semantic remote autobiographical memory in ageing , 2002, Memory.

[5]  Roberto Cabeza,et al.  Aging Gracefully: Compensatory Brain Activity in High-Performing Older Adults , 2002, NeuroImage.

[6]  G. Winocur,et al.  Aging and autobiographical memory: dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[7]  E A Maguire,et al.  Neuroimaging studies of autobiographical event memory. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[8]  Silke Lux,et al.  Specific role of medial prefrontal cortex in retrieving recent autobiographical memories: An fMRI study of young female subjects , 2010, Cortex.

[9]  E. Tulving.  [Episodic memory: from mind to brain]. , 2004, Revue neurologique.

[10]  O. Spreen,et al.  A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests: Administration, Norms, and Commentary , 1991 .

[11]  C W Pleydell-Pearce,et al.  The Neuroanatomy of Autobiographical Memory: A Slow Cortical Potential Study of Autobiographical Memory Retrieval ☆ , 2001 .

[12]  Daniel Tranel,et al.  Knowing “What” and Knowing “When” , 2006, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[13]  Eleanor A Maguire,et al.  Lateral Asymmetry in the Hippocampal Response to the Remoteness of Autobiographical Memories , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[14]  G. Winocur,et al.  Remembering our past: functional neuroanatomy of recollection of recent and very remote personal events. , 2004, Cerebral cortex.

[15]  Sharron E. Whitecross,et al.  Neurophysiological correlates of memory for experienced and imagined events , 2003, Neuropsychologia.

[16]  Brian Levine,et al.  The Functional Neuroanatomy of Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Remembering: A Prospective Functional MRI Study , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[17]  D. Reisberg,et al.  The quantity, not the quality, of affect predicts memory vividness , 1988 .

[18]  B. Levine,et al.  The functional neuroanatomy of autobiographical memory: A meta-analysis , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[19]  M. D. Rugg,et al.  Regional specificity of age effects on the neural correlates of episodic retrieval , 2008, Neurobiology of Aging.

[20]  M Moscovitch,et al.  Hippocampal complex and retrieval of recent and very remote autobiographical memories: Evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging in neurologically intact people , 2001, Hippocampus.

[21]  Gereon R Fink,et al.  Differential remoteness and emotional tone modulate the neural correlates of autobiographical memory. , 2003, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[22]  Pascale Piolino,et al.  Hippocampal activation for autobiographical memories over the entire lifetime in healthy aged subjects: an fMRI study. , 2007, Cerebral cortex.

[23]  Silke Lux,et al.  Altered neural network supporting declarative long-term memory in mild cognitive impairment , 2009, Neurobiology of Aging.

[24]  J. Raaijmakers,et al.  Neuroanatomical correlates of episodic encoding and retrieval in young and elderly subjects. , 2003, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[25]  David C. Rubin,et al.  The Neuropsychology of Autobiographical Memory , 2003, Cortex.

[26]  David C. Rubin,et al.  Autobiographical memory across the lifespan. , 1986 .

[27]  B. Knowlton,et al.  Remembering episodes: a selective role for the hippocampus during retrieval , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[28]  Gereon R. Fink,et al.  Ageing-related changes of neural activity associated with spatial contextual memory , 2009, Neurobiology of Aging.

[29]  R. Cabeza,et al.  Que PASA? The posterior-anterior shift in aging. , 2008, Cerebral cortex.

[30]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study of Ageing in 465 Normal Adult Human Brains , 2001, NeuroImage.

[31]  M. Conway,et al.  The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. , 2000, Psychological review.

[32]  K Willmes,et al.  The Aachen Aphasia Test. , 1984, Advances in neurology.

[33]  M. Conway.  Sensory-perceptual episodic memory and its context: autobiographical memory. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[34]  Wilma Koutstaal,et al.  Neural mechanisms of visual object priming: evidence for perceptual and semantic distinctions in fusiform cortex , 2003, NeuroImage.

[35]  Cheryl L Grady,et al.  Changes in memory processing with age , 2000, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[36]  Ramon Casanova,et al.  Biological parametric mapping: A statistical toolbox for multimodality brain image analysis , 2007, NeuroImage.

[37]  J. Gabrieli,et al.  Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience , 2004, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[38]  R. Clark,et al.  The medial temporal lobe. , 2004, Annual review of neuroscience.

[39]  P. Scheltens,et al.  A New Rating Scale for Age-Related White Matter Changes Applicable to MRI and CT , 2001, Stroke.

[40]  O. Spreen,et al.  Comprar A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests - Administration, Norms, and Commentary | Esther Strauss | 9780195159578 | Oxford University Press , 2009 .

[41]  E. Maguire,et al.  The Human Hippocampus and Spatial and Episodic Memory , 2002, Neuron.

[42]  Morris Moscovitch,et al.  Retrieval of autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease: Relation to volumes of medial temporal lobe and other structures , 2005, Hippocampus.

[43]  R. Sperling,et al.  Age-related memory impairment associated with loss of parietal deactivation but preserved hippocampal activation , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[44]  R. Reitan,et al.  The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation , 1993 .

[45]  R. Cabeza,et al.  Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[46]  Georg Northoff,et al.  Self-referential processing in our brain—A meta-analysis of imaging studies on the self , 2006, NeuroImage.

[47]  Piero Antuono,et al.  Temporally Graded Activation of Neocortical Regions in Response to Memories of Different Ages , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[48]  F. Craik,et al.  The attentional demands of encoding and retrieval in younger and older adults: 1. Evidence from divided attention costs. , 1998, Psychology and aging.

[49]  Eleanor A Maguire,et al.  Aging affects the engagement of the hippocampus during autobiographical memory retrieval. , 2003, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[50]  R. Cabeza.  Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: the HAROLD model. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[51]  M. Rugg,et al.  Age effects on the neural correlates of episodic retrieval: increased cortical recruitment with matched performance. , 2007, Cerebral cortex.

[52]  H. Lanfermann,et al.  Engagement of Lateral and Medial Prefrontal Areas in the Ecphory of Sad and Happy Autobiographical Memories , 2003, Cortex.

[53]  B. Desgranges,et al.  Autobiographical memory, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective in aging. , 2006, Psychology and Aging.

[54]  J. Logan,et al.  Under-Recruitment and Nonselective Recruitment Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Associated with Aging , 2002, Neuron.

[55]  G. Winocur,et al.  Functional neuroanatomy of remote episodic, semantic and spatial memory: a unified account based on multiple trace theory , 2005, Journal of anatomy.