Maintaining good memory performance in older age – manifestations in the aging brain
-
1
Umea University, Sweden
Functional neuroimaging studies have revealed age-related changes in patterns of brain activity. However, most previous studies did not control for performance differences. Recent evidence shows that elderly with a high memory performance display a more “youth-like” activation pattern (Nagel et al., 2009). Here, based on recently collected functional imaging data from > 300 adults ranging in age between 25 – 80 years, we will present further evidence on the relation between high memory performance in advanced age and functional and structural brain characteristics. In keeping with our previous findings (Habib et al., 2007), we observed substantial heterogeneity within the elderly population with regard to memory performance. Preliminary analyses of the brain-imaging data revealed that cognitively high-performing elderly were more similar to younger adults in terms of brain structure and function. Thus, a minimum of age-related brain changes seems to characterize individuals who maintain high levels of cognitive performance in older age.
Keywords:
Aging,
fMRI
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Symposium: Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 22: Successful aging: a neurocognitive perspective
Citation:
Nyberg
L
(2011). Maintaining good memory performance in older age – manifestations in the aging brain.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00592
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
14 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Lars Nyberg, Umea University, Umea, Sweden, lars.nyberg@diagrad.umu.se