Aging, memory, and the cholinergic system: a study of dichotic listening.
Impairment of cholinergic neural function has been proposed as a cause of memory and cognitive (M/C) disorders of the aged since with cholinergic blockade young subjects show the M/C pattern of the elderly. To validate this hypothesis, we compared the performance of young normal subjects, young scopolamine-treated subjects, and aged subjects, using a different type of behavioral task, a dichotic listening test, which primarily measures neural channel capacity. With simultaneous dichotic presentation, undrugged young subjects reported both messages correctly in 35% of trials. Aged subjects scored double-correct responses in only 19% of trials, a highly significant difference (p less than 0.001). Following treatment with 1.0 mg scopolamine, young subjects also scored double correct responses in only 19% of trials, a highly significant reduction from their undrugged performance (p less than 0.01), but virtually the same as that of normal aged subjects. Similar findings were obtained with a staggered dichotic presentation. These results extend the observation that cholinergic blockade in young subjects reproduces the pattern of M/C decline of the aged; thus providing further for the hypothesis that this decline may result from impaired function in cholinergic neurons. The neurobiologic implications of cholinergic impairment are discussed.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
D012601:Scopolamine