Mémoire épisodique et déficit d'inhibition au cours du vieillissement cognitif : un examen de l'hypothèse frontale

Abstract

Summary : Episodic memory, inhibition deficit, and cognitive aging : An examination of the frontal hypothesis Cognitive aging is a mosaic of selective deficits and spared abilities. To account for such discrepancies, it has been assumed that age-related differences in memory tasks were mainly observed in conditions that require executive control and activation of the prefrontal cortex. The present theoretical note examines this frontal hypothesis by contrasting a strong and a weak version. The strong version explains memory declines in normal aging by a specific deficit of inhibition mechanisms. The weak version invokes more general links between some strategic memory processes and executive control. The note proceeds in three steps. First, it briefly surveys the different formulations of the hypothesis, which focus on various aspects of human cognition. Second, it considers the diversity of inhibition mechanisms and of memory processes. Third, it examines empirical evidence about age-related changes in memory performance and executive functions : analysis of individual differences, experimental investigations, and studies using neuro-imagery techniques. In conclusion, the literature does not support tentative explanations of cognitive aging that rely on a single factor called inhibitory deficit. Key words : memory, cognitive aging, inhibition.

Inhibitory control of memory in normal ageing: Dissociation between impaired intentional and preserved unintentional processes

“…In agreement with the proposal of specific inhibitory dysfunctions in normal aging, studies that have simultaneously explored the integrity of several inhibitory processes in a single group of elderly subjects (Andrès, Guerrini, Phillips & Perfect, 2008;Charlot & Feyereisen, 2005;Kramer, Humphrey, Larish, Logan, & Strayer, 1994) demonstrated that not all inhibitory tasks were impaired in normal aging. Moreover, studies exploring inhibitory functioning in elderly subjects using verbal memory tasks do not systematically report impaired performance (i.e., Aslan et al, 2007;Sego et al, 2006; for examples of impaired performance see however Andrès et al, 2004;Radvansky et al, 1996Radvansky et al, , 2005.…”

Systematic review and meta-analysis of cognitive impairment in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)

“…Indeed, encoding is strongly influenced by the level of attention allocated to the information to be memorized. A low level of attention impacts the quality of the storage as well as the facility of recovery posteriori 108 . The choice of tests evaluating episodic memory is crucial in terms of its ability to control the quality of encoding by minimizing the impact of possible fluctuations of attention level.…”

Dissociation of perceptual and motor inhibitory processes in young and elderly participants using the Simon task

“…However, other data indicate that not all inhibitory tasks are impaired in normal aging (Charlot & Feyereisen, 2005;Kramer et al, 1994). More specifically, normal aging is characterized by an impairment of controlled0intentional inhibitory processes associated with a preservation of automatic0unintentional inhibitory processes (Andrés, 2008;Andrés et al, 2008;Collette et al, 2008b).…”

“…Second, we were interested in comparing the integrity of these two inhibitory processes in a single group of older participants. Indeed, very few earlier studies had been interested in evaluating the generality or specificity of the inhibitory dysfunction in normal aging by simultaneously administering several tasks assessing different inhibitory processes (Andrés et al, 2008; Belleville et al, 2006; Charlot & Feyereisen, 2005; Kramer et al, 1994). In the present study, results indicate that, unlike young participants, healthy older participants seems to rely more on common cognitive resources necessary to resolve perceptual and motor conflicts (as indicated by ANOVA and correlation analyses).…”

“…A normal performance was also observed for inhibition of return (Hartley & Kieley, 1995), antisaccade (Eenshuistra et al, 2004,), go/no-go (Rush et al, 2006), and dichotic listening tasks (Murphy et al, 1999). Moreover, the few studies that administered several inhibitory tasks to the same groups of young and older participants also demonstrated a specific impairment of some processes associated with the preservation of the others (Andrés et al, 2008; Charlot & Feyereisen, 2005; Kramer et al, 1994; see, however, Belleville et al, 2006). For example, in the Charlot and Feyereisen's study, the effects of aging on working memory are weaker on the access than on the suppression functions.…”