Functional phenotyping of successful aging in long-term memory: Preserved performance in the absence of neural compensation
✍ Scribed by Emrah Düzel; Hartmut Schütze; Andrew P. Yonelinas; Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 487 KB
- Volume
- 21
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1050-9631
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
We investigated whether preservation of encoding‐related brain activity patterns in older age reflects successful aging in long‐term memory. Using a statistical matching technique, we identified groups of healthy older adults with different degrees of Functional Activity Deviation during Encoding (FADE) from young adults in a memory network comprising hippocampal, temporal, occipital, and retrosplenial regions. High FADE scores were associated with impairment in recollection, abnormal activity in the default mode network, and lower gray matter density in bilateral ventral prefrontal cortex and left rhinal cortex; a constellation previously associated with increased risk for dementia. Low FADE scores functionally phenotyped successful aging because recollection was well preserved and there was no evidence for compensatory prefrontal activation. Thus, for some individuals successful aging in long‐term memory reflects the preservation of a functionally specific memory network, and can occur in the absence of compensatory brain activity. ©2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.