title: Short- and long-term spatial delayed response performance across the lifespan.
abstract: Delayed response paradigms have been used to examine the neural basis of short and long-term memory in humans. However, limited information exists on how delayed response performance changes across the lifespan. Using a well-validated spatial delayed response (SDR) task, we examined performance at short and long delays in over 300 control participants, 7 to 80 years old. We found a significant nonlinear relation between age and short delay performance (children and older adults worse than young adults) and a significant effect of delay length across the entire lifespan (long worse than short; largest in the youngest children, diminishing nonlinearly with age). This study compares short and long-term spatial memory and suggests that the relation between these systems may alter across the lifespan.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyons-Warren
authors.forename: Rema
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lillie
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hershey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*