Watching TV news as a memory task--brain activation and age effects.
BACKGROUND
Neuroimaging studies which investigate brain activity underlying declarative memory processes typically use artificial, unimodal laboratory stimuli. In contrast, we developed a paradigm which much more closely approximates real-life situations of information encoding.


METHODS
In this study, we tested whether ecologically valid stimuli--clips of a TV news show--are apt to assess memory-related fMRI activation in healthy participants across a wide age range (22-70 years). We contrasted brain responses during natural stimulation (TV news video clips) with a control condition (scrambled versions of the same clips with reversed audio tracks). After scanning, free recall performance was assessed.


RESULTS
The memory task evoked robust activation of a left-lateralized network, including primarily lateral temporal cortex, frontal cortex, as well as the left hippocampus. Further analyses revealed that--when controlling for performance effects--older age was associated with greater activation of left temporal and right frontal cortex.


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrate the feasibility of assessing brain activity underlying declarative memory using a natural stimulation paradigm with high ecological validity. The preliminary result of greater brain activation with increasing age might reflect an attempt to compensate for decreasing episodic memory capacity associated with aging.
Frings
Lars
L
Section of Gerontopsychiatry and Neuropsychology, Medical School, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany. lars.frings@uniklinik-freiburg.de
Mader
Irina
I
Hüll
Michael
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013690:Television; D055815:Young Adult