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Abstract :
[en] It is now commonly accepted that a decline in episodic memory is observed with ageing: while recollection processes are impaired, familiarity seems to be relatively preserved (a). Older individuals appear to recruit prefrontal areas bilaterally when their encoding is successful, while in young adults this activation is found to be left-lateralized (b). In this study, we were interested in the differences between younger and older participant regarding cerebral activity during encoding depending on whether the item elicited recollection or familiarity during the recognition phase.
Twenty young volunteers (aged 19 to 29 years old) and 19 older volunteers (aged 60 to 78 years old) were presented visual stimuli depicting objects. During a first fMRI session, they were asked to make a size judgement about them. Then, in a second phase, the subjects were shown the items previously encountered during the encoding phase, as well as distractors. Participants' task was to determine which one were new and which one were seen earlier. For the latter, they also performed a Remember-Know judgement. Data were analysed using SPM8, with an event design comparing modifications in cerebral activity between the two subjects groups during encoding (1) for the items leading to recollection during the recognition phase compared to those leading to familiarity, and (2) for the items associated with familiarity during the recognition phase compared to those which were not recognized.
Results show that older adults display a heightened activity in the right middle frontal gyrus, medial cingulate and paracingulate left gyri as well as in the precuneus, bilaterally when they engage recollection processes. Given that activations in these areas did not correlate with performance, they could be interepreted either as dedifferentiation or as an attempt of the ageing brain to compensate for a less elaborate encoding. However, no increase of activity was associated with familiarity processes in older adults, possibly because they are less demanding regarding attentional resources.
(a) Bugaiska, A., Clarys, D., Jarry, C., Taconnat, L., Tapia, G., Vanneste, S., & Isingrini, M. (2007). The effect of aging in recollective experience: the processing speed and executive functioning hypothesis. Consciousness and Cognition, 16(4), 797-808. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2006.11.007
(b) Duverne, S., Motamedinia, S., & Rugg, M. D. (2009). The relationship between aging, performance, and the neural correlates of successful memory encoding. Cerebral Cortex, 19(3), 733-744. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn122
