The Effects of Age on the Neural Correlates of Recollection Success, Recollection-Related Cortical Reinstatement, and Post-Retrieval Monitoring

Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate whether age-related differences in episodic memory performance are accompanied by a reduction in the specificity of recollected information. We addressed this question by comparing recollection-related cortical reinstatement in young and older adults. At study, subjects viewed objects and concrete words, making 1 of 2 different semantic judgments depending on the study material. Test items were words that corresponded to studied words or the names of studied objects. Subjects indicated whether each test item was recollected, familiar, or novel. Reinstatement of information differentiating the encoding tasks was quantified both with a univariate analysis of the fMRI signal and with a multivoxel pattern analysis, using a classifier that had been trained to discriminate between the 2 classes of study episode. The results of these analyses converged to suggest that reinstatement did not differ according to age. Thus, there was no evidence that specificity of recollected information was reduced in older individuals. Additionally, there were no age effects in the magnitude of recollection-related modulations in regional activity or in the neural correlates of post-retrieval monitoring. Taken together, the findings suggest that the neural mechanisms engaged during successful episodic retrieval can remain stable with advancing age.

The neural correlates of recollection and retrieval monitoring: Relationships with age and recollection performance

“…Even among studies where this confound is arguably largely absent – for example, where the critical contrast is between correctly recognized test items accorded accurate vs. inaccurate source memory judgments, or items endorsed as ‘remembered’ vs. ‘known’ – the findings are inconsistent, ranging from reports of reductions in retrieval-success effects in older compared with younger individuals, to null findings, through to enhanced effects in older participants (e.g., Duarte et al, 2008; Kukolja et al, 2009; Tsukiura et al, 2010; Dulas & Duarte, 2012; Angel et al, 2013; Cansino et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2016; see Wang & Cabeza, in press, for a review).…”

“…This refers to control processes responsible for evaluating the outcome of a retrieval attempt in relation to behavioral goals (Burgess & Shallice, 1996; Rugg, 2004). The neural correlates of monitoring are identified by contrasting retrieval cues eliciting weak versus strong memory signals (e.g., Henson et al, 1999, 2000; Achim & Lepage, 2005; Wang et al, 2016). These prior studies have consistently implicated right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in monitoring.…”

“…A relatively small number of fMRI studies have investigated the effects of age on the neural correlates of monitoring and, echoing findings from studies of recollection success, have yielded inconsistent results (see, for example, Duarte et al, 2010; Giovanello et al, 2010; Dulas & Duarte, 2014; Wang et al, 2016, for reports of null effects of age, and McDonough et al, 2013, and Mitchell et al, 2013, for reports of age-related impairment in monitoring-related activity in rDLPFC). Here, we examined whether fMRI ‘monitoring effects’ are sensitive not only to age, but also to individual differences in memory performance (cf.…”

“…Here, we examined whether fMRI ‘monitoring effects’ are sensitive not only to age, but also to individual differences in memory performance (cf. Wang et al, 2016). …”

Training-induced changes in subsequent-memory effects: No major differences among children, younger adults, and older adults

“…Hence, training an associative memory strategy may involve similar brain mechanisms in children, younger adults, and older adults when investigating a fine-grained contrast, namely encoding success (see Mark & Rugg, 1998;Li et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2015 for similar findings regarding retrieval success). The reductions in SM effects indicate that activations for later on remembered and not-remembered items during encoding became more similar as a function of training.…”