The Aging Brain: Exploring the Crossroads of Memory and Attention
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1
University of California, United States
Interference is known to negatively impact our ability to maintain information in working memory (WM), an effect that is exacerbated in aging. Over the last several years, EEG and fMRI studies in our lab have revealed that older adults experience a diminished ability to implement top-down suppression mechanisms when confronted with irrelevant information, and that this deficit is associated with an impairment in WM performance. Furthermore, we have shown that suppression abilities are not abolished in aging, but are slowed, and that the deficit occurs whether participants are prepared or unprepared for the appearance of distractors. Recently, we explored how distinct sources of interference, i.e., distraction (stimuli to-be-ignored) and interruption (stimuli requiring attention: i.e., a dual task), differentially influence WM in aging. Both types of interference were found to negatively impact WM accuracy in older adults significantly more than younger adults. Interestingly, while WM impairments could be explained by excessive attention to distractors by older adults (i.e., a suppression deficit), impairment induced by interruption was not mediated by age-related increases in attention to interruptors. Rather, fMRI data revealed that younger adults temporarily “released” stored memoranda during an interruption, as reflected by reduced prefrontal cortex-visual association cortex connectivity, and renewed connectivity during the post-interference delay period, which was interpreted as reactivation of the memoranda. Older adults did not display the pattern of re-emergent connectivity during the second delay period, suggesting that an age-associated deficit in prefrontal-mediated, memory reactivation contributes to multi-tasking impairment in aging.
References
1. Gazzaley et al. Nature Neuroscience 2005, 8, 1298-1300
2. Clapp & Gazzaley. Neurobiology of Aging in press
Conference:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 7: Aging
Citation:
Gazzaley
A
(2010). The Aging Brain: Exploring the Crossroads of Memory and Attention.
Conference Abstract:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00043
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Received:
28 Jun 2010;
Published Online:
28 Jun 2010.
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Correspondence:
Adam Gazzaley, University of California, San Francisco, United States, adam.gazzaley@ucsf.edu