Age-related memory impairment associated with loss of parietal deactivation but preserved hippocampal activation.
The neural underpinnings of age-related memory impairment remain to be fully elucidated. Using a subsequent memory face-name functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm, young and old adults showed a similar magnitude and extent of hippocampal activation during successful associative encoding. Young adults demonstrated greater deactivation (task-induced decrease in BOLD signal) in medial parietal regions during successful compared with failed encoding, whereas old adults as a group did not demonstrate a differential pattern of deactivation between trial types. The failure of deactivation was particularly evident in old adults who performed poorly on the memory task. These low-performing old adults demonstrated greater hippocampal and prefrontal activation to achieve successful encoding trials, possibly as a compensatory response. Findings suggest that successful encoding requires the coordination of neural activity in hippocampal, prefrontal, and parietal regions, and that age-related memory impairment may be primarily related to a loss of deactivation in medial parietal regions.
Miller
Saul L
SL
Memory Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Celone
Kim
K
DePeau
Kristina
K
Diamond
Eli
E
Dickerson
Bradford C
BC
Rentz
Dorene
D
Pihlajamäki
Maija
M
Sperling
Reisa A
RA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*