A comprehensive score reflecting memory-related fMRI activations and deactivations as potential biomarker for neurocognitive aging

Abstract

Older adults and particularly those at risk for developing dementia typically show a decline in episodic memory performance, which has been associated with altered memory network activity detectable via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To quantify the degree of these alterations, a score has been developed as a putative imaging biomarker for successful aging in memory for older adults (Functional Activity Deviations during Encoding, FADE; Düzel et al., 2011). Here, we introduce and validate a more comprehensive version of the FADE score, termed FADE-SAME (Similarity of Activations during Memory Encoding), which differs from the original FADE score by considering not only activations but also deactivations in fMRI contrasts of stimulus novelty and successful encoding, and by taking into account the variance of young adults’ activations. We computed both scores for novelty and subsequent memory contrasts in a cohort of 217 healthy adults, including 106 young and 111 older participants, as well as a replication cohort of 117 young subjects. We further tested the stability and generalizability of both scores by controlling for different MR scanners and gender, as well as by using different data sets of young adults as reference samples. Both scores showed robust age-group-related differences for the subsequent memory contrast, and the FADE-SAME score additionally exhibited age-group-related differences for the novelty contrast. Furthermore, both scores correlate with behavioral measures of cognitive aging, namely memory performance. Taken together, our results suggest that single-value scores of memory-related fMRI responses may constitute promising biomarkers for quantifying neurocognitive aging.

Structural and functional MRI data differentially predict chronological age and behavioral memory performance

“…one indoor and one outdoor scene pre-familiarized before the actual experiment (cf. Soch et al, 2021a, Fig. 1B).…”

“…Please note that this study is based on the same participant sample as described in Soch et al (2021a, 2021b) and Richter et al (2022). The analyses and results described in this study are novel and have not been described or shown elsewhere.…”

“…During the fMRI experiment, participants performed a visual memory encoding paradigm with an indoor/outdoor judgment as the incidental encoding task. Compared to earlier publications of this paradigm (Düzel et al, 2011; Barman et al, 2014; Schott et al, 2014; Assmann et al, 2020), the trial timings had been adapted as part of the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (DELCODE) study protocol (Düzel et al, 2018; Bainbridge et al, 2019; see Soch et al, 2021a, for a detailed comparison of trial timings and acquisition parameters). Subjects viewed photographs showing indoor and outdoor scenes, which were either novel at the time of presentation (44 indoor and 44 outdoor scenes) or were repetitions of two highly familiar “master” images (22 indoor and 22 outdoor trials), i.e.…”

“…We compared SVM-based prediction of chronological age versus prediction of memory performance from behavioral data, task-based fMRI, resting-state fMRI, and structural MRI markers associated with increasing age. Our analyses where based on a large sample of 106 young and 153 older subjects (Soch et al, 2021a). Episodic memory performance was measured in the fMRI task and in various neuropsychological tests, using either incidental or intentional memory formation.…”

Learning by Insight-Like Sudden Comprehension as a Potential Strategy to Improve Memory Encoding in Older Adults

“…Participants were recruited via university mailing lists and social media, via a newspaper article in Hildesheim, and via an existing participant pool of an ongoing study on age-related cognitive changes at the LIN Magdeburg ( Assmann et al, 2020 ; Soch et al, 2021a , b ). In Hildesheim, young participants were mainly recruited via digital media and older participants via newspaper call.…”