How cognitive function declines

News reports

March 2008

White-matter changes linked to gait and balance problems

A three-year study involving 639 adults between the ages of 65 and 84 has found that people with severe white matter changes (leukoaraiosis) were twice as likely to score poorly on walking and balance tests as those people with mild white matter changes. The study also found people with severe changes were twice as likely as the mild group to have a history of falls. The moderate group was one-and-a-half times as likely as the mild group to have a history of falls.  Further research will explore the effect of exercise.
The study was published in the March 18 issue of Neurology.  Full reference
http://www.physorg.com/news124990876.html

January 2008

Lack of imagination in older adults linked to declining memory

In a study in which older and younger adults were asked to think of past and future events, older adults were found to generate fewer details about past events — and this correlated with an impaired ability to imagine future events. The number of details remembered by older adults was also linked to their relational memory abilities. The findings suggest that our ability to imagine future events is based on our ability to remember the details of previously experienced ones, extract relevant details and put them together to create an imaginary event.
The results appeared in the January issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/afps-loi010708.php

December 2007

Brain systems become less coordinated with age, even in the absence of disease

An imaging study of the brain function of 93 healthy individuals from 18 to 93 years old has revealed that normal aging disrupts communication between different regions of the brain. The finding is consistent with previous research showing that normal aging slowly degrades white matter. The study focused on the links within two critical networks, one responsible for processing information from the outside world and one, known as the default network, which is more internal and kicks in when we muse to ourselves. “We found that in young adults, the front of the brain was pretty well in sync with the back of the brain [but] in older adults this was not the case. The regions became out of sync and they were less correlated with each other.” However, older adults with normal, high correlations performed better on cognitive tests. Among older individuals whose brain systems did not correlate, all of the systems were not affected in the same way. The default system was most severely disrupted with age. The visual system was very well preserved.
The results were published in the December 6 issue of Neuron.  Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/hhmi-tab120307.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/hu-bsb120307.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/cp-co112907.php

December 2006

Why neurogenesis is so much less in older brains

A rat study has revealed that the aging brain produces progressively fewer new nerve cells in the hippocampus (neurogenesis) not because there are fewer of the immature cells (neural stem cells) that can give rise to new neurons, but because they divide much less often. In young rats, around a quarter of the neural stem cells were actively dividing, but only 8% of cells in middle-aged rats and 4% in old rats were. This suggests a new approach to improving learning and memory function in the elderly.
Results of the study appeared online ahead of print November 7 in Neurobiology of Aging. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/dumc-sca121806.htm

September 2006

Senior’s memory complaints should be taken seriously

A study involving 120 people over 60 found those who complained of significant memory problems who still performed normally on memory tests had a 3% reduction in gray matter density in their brains. This compares to 4% in those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. This suggests that significant memory loss complaints may indicate a very early "pre-MCI" stage of dementia for some people.
The study was published in the September 12 issue of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/aaon-fym090506.htm

June 2006

Alzheimer's pathology related to episodic memory loss in those without dementia

A study of 134 participants from the Religious Orders Study or the Memory and Aging Project has found that, although they didn't have cognitive impairment at the time of their death, more than a third of the participants (50) met criteria for a pathologic diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. This group also scored significantly lower on tests for episodic memory, such as recalling stories and word lists. The results provide further support for the idea that a ‘cognitive reserve’ can allow people to tolerate a significant amount of Alzheimer's pathology without manifesting obvious dementia. It also raises the question whether we should accept any minor episodic memory loss in older adults as 'normal'.
The study was published in the June 27 issue of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/aaon-apr062006.htm

May 2006

Does IQ drop with age or does something else impact intelligence?

As people grow older, their IQ scores drop. But is it really that they lose intelligence? A study has found that if college students had to perform under conditions that mimic the perception deficits many older people have, their IQ scores would also take a drop.
The study was reported in the April issue of Psychology and Aging. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/cwru-did050106.htm

April 2006

More on why older adults are more distractible

A number of recent studies have made it clear that as we age, we find it harder to block out unwanted distractions. A new study used a new brain imaging technique known as EROS to determine whether this is due to faster sensory memory decay or to inefficient filtering of irrelevant sensory information. The study involved 16 young and 16 older participants who read a book of their choice while distracting tones played in the background. The volume of the tones was adjusted so that all the participants heard them at the same level, and the tones were emitted in groups of fives. The young participants showed brain activity in the auditory cortex in response to the first tone in each sequence only, but the older adults' brains responded to all five. The finding supports the view that the growing difficulty at blocking out distractions is due to inefficient filtering of irrelevant sensory information , not faster sensory memory decay.
This research was published in the April issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and featured in Scientific American Mind, April/May 2006. Full reference
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.htm3?article_id=218392783

March 2006

Walking in older people is related to cognitive skills

A study of 186 adults aged 70 and older tested gait speed with and without interference (walking while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet). Walking speed was predictable from performance on cognitive tests of executive control and memory, particularly when the participant was required to recite at the same time. The findings suggest that in old age, walking involves higher-order executive-control processes, suggesting that cognitive tests could help doctors assess risk for falls. Conversely, slow gait could alert them to check for cognitive impairment.
The findings appeared in the March issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text available at http://www.apa.org/releases/neu202-holtzer.pdf.)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/apa-opw032306.htm

Confidence in memory performance helps older adults remember

A study involving 335 adults aged 21 to 83 found that control beliefs were related to memory performance on a word list recall task for middle-aged and older adults, but not for younger adults. This was partly because middle-aged and older adults who perceived greater control over cognitive functioning were more likely to use strategies to help their memory. In other words, the more you believe there are things you can do to remember information, the more likely you are to make an effort to remember.
The study was published in the Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/bu-cim030706.htm

February 2006

Why older adults more vulnerable to distraction from irrelevant information

We know older adults find it harder to filter out irrelevant information. Now a study looking at brain function in young, middle-aged and older adults has identified changes in brain activity that begin gradually in middle age which may explain why. In younger adults, activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (associated with tasks that require concentration, such as reading) normally increases during the task, while activity in the medial frontal and parietal regions (associated with non-task related activity in a resting state, such as thinking about yourself, what you did last night, monitoring what's going on around you) normally decreases. In middle age (40-60 years), this pattern begins to break down during performance of memory tasks, although performance is not affected (but most of the participants were fairly well educated, so the finding of brain changes without accompanying behavioural changes in the middle-aged group may reflect the "protective effect" of education). Activity in the medial frontal and parietal regions stays turned on while activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreases. The imbalance becomes more pronounced in older adults (65+), suggesting there is a gradual, age-related reduction in the ability to suspend non-task-related or "default-mode" activity and engage areas for carrying out memory tasks.
The findings are reported in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/b-oam013006.htm

January 2006

Immune function important for cognition

New research overturns previous beliefs that immune cells play no part in — and may indeed constitute a danger to — the brain. Following on from an earlier study that suggested that T cells — immune cells that recognize brain proteins — have the potential to fight off neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s, researchers have found that neurogenesis in adult rats kept in stimulating environments requires these immune cells. A further study found that mice with these T cells performed better at some tasks than mice lacking the cells. The researchers suggest that age-related cognitive decline may be related to this, as aging is associated with a decrease in immune system function, suggesting that boosting the immune system may also benefit cognitive function in older adults.
The study was published online 15 January and appears in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/acft-wis011106.htm

November 2005

'Sharp' older brains are not the same as younger brains

We know that many older adults still retain the mental sharpness of younger people, but studies comparing brain activity in older and younger adults suggests they perform differently. A rat study has now found the first solid evidence that still "sharp" older brains do indeed store and encode memories differently than younger brains. Comparison of those older rats who had retained their cognitive abilities with those who had not, also revealed that those with impaired cognition had lost the ability to modify the strength of the communications between synapses (synaptic communication is the means by which memories are encoded and stored). But the competent seniors also differed from the younger rats in the mechanism most used to bring about synaptic change.
The findings were reported online November 13 in Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/jhu-ob110905.htm

October 2005

Early life stress can lead to memory loss and cognitive decline in middle age

Age-related cognitive decline is probably a result of both genetic and environmental factors. A rat study has demonstrated that some of these environmental factors may occur in early life. Among the rats, emotional stress in infancy showed no ill effects by the time the rats reached adulthood, but as the rats reached middle age, cognitive deficits started to appear in those rats who had had stressful infancies, and progressed much more rapidly with age than among those who had had nurturing infancies. Middle-aged rats who had been exposed to early life emotional stress showed deterioration in brain-cell communication in the hippocampus.
Study results appeared in the October 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/uoc--els100605.htm

Changes in brain, not age, determine one's ability to focus on task

It’s been established that one of the reasons why older adults may do less well on cognitive tasks is because they have greater difficulty in ignoring distractions, which impairs their concentration. But not all older people are afflicted by this. Some are as focused as young adults. An imaging study has now revealed a difference between the brains of those people who are good at focusing, and those who are poor. Those who have difficulty screening out distractions have less white matter in the frontal lobes. They activated neurons in the left frontal lobe as well as the right. Young people and high-functioning older adults tended to use only the right frontal lobe.
The study was reported in the September issue of Psychology and Aging. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/uoia-cib102605.htm

September 2005

Memory loss in older adults due to distractions, not inability to focus

We know that older adults often have short-term memory problems, and this has been linked to problems with attention. An imaging study now provides evidence that these short-term memory problems are associated with an inability to filter out surrounding distractions, rather than problems with focusing attention. It’s been suggested that an inability to ignore distracting information may indeed be at the heart of many of the cognitive problems that accompany aging. It should be noted that this is not an inevitable effect of age — in the study, 6 of the 16 older adults involved had no problems with short-term memory or attention.
The report appeared online on September 11 in Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-09/uoc--mli090805.htm

May 2005

Older adults more likely to "remember" misinformation

In a study involving older adults (average age 75) and younger adults (average age 19), participants studied lists of paired related words, then viewed new lists of paired words, some the same as before, some different, and some with only one of the two words the same. In those cases, the "prime" word, which was presented immediately prior to the test, was plausible but incorrect. The older adults were 10 times more likely than young adults to accept the wrong word and falsely "remember" earlier studying that word. This was true even though older adults had more time to study the list of word pairs and attained a performance level equal to that of the young adults. Additionally, when told they had the option to "pass" when unsure of an answer, older adults rarely used the option. Younger adults did, greatly reducing their false recall. The findings reflect real-world reports of a rising incidence of scams perpetrated on the elderly, which rely on the victim’s poor memory and vulnerability to the power of suggestion.
A full report appeared in the May issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology (JEP): General. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/xge1342131.pdf.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/apa-gmc051005.htm

March 2005

Repeated product warnings are remembered as product recommendations

Warnings about particular products may have quite the opposite effect than intended. Because we retain a familiarity with encountered items far longer than details, the more often we are told a claim about a consumer item is false, the more likely we are to accept it as true a little further down the track. Research also reveals that older adults are more susceptible to this error. It is relevant to note that in the U.S. at least, some 80% of consumer fraud victims are over 65.
The report appeared in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uocp-nrr032905.htm

February 2005

An advantage of age

A study comparing the ability of young and older adults to indicate which direction a set of bars moved across a computer screen has found that although younger participants were faster when the bars were small or low in contrast, when the bars were large and high in contrast, the older people were faster. The results suggest that the ability of one neuron to inhibit another is reduced as we age (inhibition helps us find objects within clutter, but makes it hard to see the clutter itself). The loss of inhibition as we age has previously been seen in connection with cognition and speech studies, and is reflected in our greater inability to tune out distraction as we age. Now we see the same process in vision.
The study was published in the February 3 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://psychology.plebius.org/article.htm?article=739
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/mu-opg020305.htm

January 2005

Older people with the 'Alzheimer's gene' find it harder to remember intentions

It has been established that those with a certain allele of a gene called ApoE have a much greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s (those with this allele on both genes have 8 times the risk; those with the allele on one gene have 3 times the risk). Recent studies also suggest that such carriers are also more likely to show signs of deficits in episodic memory – but that these deficits are quite subtle. In the first study to look at prospective memory in seniors with the “Alzheimer’s gene”, involving 32 healthy, dementia-free adults between ages of 60 and 87, researchers found a marked difference in performance between those who had the allele and those who did not. The results suggest an exception to the thinking that ApoE status has only a subtle effect on cognition.
The research appeared in the January issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at: http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu19128.pdf.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/apa-opw011805.htm

September 2004

Effect of expectations on older adults’ memory performance

A study involving 193 participants and two experiments, each with a younger (17 – 35 years old) and older (57 – 82 years old) group of adults, has investigated how negative stereotypes about aging influences older adults' memory. Participants were exposed to stereotype-related words in the context of another task (scrambled sentence, word judgment) in order to prime positive and negative stereotypes of aging. Results show memory performance in older adults was lower when they were primed with negative stereotypes than when they were primed with positive stereotypes. Age differences in memory between young and older adults were significantly reduced following a positive stereotype prime, with young and older adults performing at almost identical levels in some situations.
The report appeared in the September issue of Psychology and Aging. Full reference
Full text is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/pag/press_releases/september_2004/pag193.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/apa-se090704.htm

June 2004

Some brains age more rapidly than others

Investigation of the patterns of gene expression in post-mortem brain tissue has revealed two groups of genes with significantly altered expression levels in the brains of older individuals. The most significantly affected are mostly those related to learning and memory. One of the most interesting, and potentially useful, findings, is that patterns of gene expression are quite similar in the brains of younger adults. Very old adults also show similar patterns, although the similarity is less. But the greatest degree of individual variation occurs in those aged between 40 and 70. Some of these adults show gene patterns that look more like the young group, whereas others show gene patterns that look more like the old group. It appears that gene changes start around 40 in some people, but not in others. It also appears that those genes that are affected by age are unusually vulnerable to damage from agents such as free radicals and toxins in the environment, suggesting that lifestyle in young adults may play a part in deciding rate and degree of cognitive decline in later years.
The study appeared in the June 24 issue of Nature. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/chb-dgi060204.htm

November 2003

Drugs that increase the activity of an enzyme called protein kinase A improve long-term memory in aged mice and have been proposed as memory-enhancing drugs for elderly humans. However, the type of memory improved by this activity occurs principally in the hippocampus. A new study suggests that increased activity of this enzyme has a deleterious effect on working memory (which principally involves the prefrontal cortex). In other words, a drug that helps you remember a recent event may worsen your ability to remember what you’re about to do (to take an example).
The research was published in the November 13 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/naos-mdf110303.htm

A number of pharmaceutical companies are working on developing memory-enhancing drugs not only for patients with clinical memory impairment, but also for perfectly healthy people. Although some drugs have been found that can improve cognitive function in those suffering from impairment, the side effects preclude their use among healthy people. However, a recent study has found evidence that a well-established drug used for narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleepiness) may improve cognition in normal people, without side effects. The drug seems to particularly affect some tasks requiring planning and working memory (and in a further, as yet unpublished study, appears helpful for adults with ADHD). Whether the drug (modafinil) has anything over caffeine in terms of the cognitive benefits it brings is still debated. More interestingly, and in line with the sometimes conflicting results of these kinds of drugs on different people, the researchers suggest that the effect of drugs on cognitive function depends on the level at which the individual cognitive system is operating: if your system is mildly below par, the right brain chemical could improve performance; if it’s well below par, the same dose will have a much smaller effect; if (and this is the interesting one) it’s already operating at peak, the chemical could in fact degrade performance.
The study was reported in the January issue of Psychopharmacology. Full reference
http://gateways.bmn.com/sreport/previous?day=031202&story=1

A six-year imaging study of 45 healthy seniors assessed changes in brain scans against cognitive decline. They found that progressive atrophy in the medial temporal lobe was the most significant predictor of cognitive decline, which occurred in 29% of the subjects.
The study appeared in the December issue of Radiology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/rson-mhr111703.htm

September 2003

Cognitive abilities are fairly stable and may be correlated with longevity

The Scottish Mental Survey assessed 87,498 eleven-year-olds in 1932, and another 70,805 in 1947. In a fascinating follow-up to this study, over 1000 of these students have been contacted and re-assessed, on the exact same tests. It was found that, first of all, the seniors did rather better than they had at age 11, and that differences in mental ability remained fairly stable with age. Mental ability at 11 was also found to be significantly correlated with survival — those who scored highly were more likely to have survived, with the exception that men with high ability were more likely to die in active service in World War II. People of lower ability had a greater tendency to lung and stomach cancer. More results from this landmark study are expected.
These preliminary findings were presented by Professor Ian Deary from the Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh at a symposium on aging at the Australian National University. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030929/aging.html

August 2003

Mouse study suggests new approach to reducing age-related cognitive decline

Young and old mice learned that a particular tone was associated with a mild electric footshock. When the tone was immediately followed by a shock, both young and aged mice easily remembered the association on the following day. When the tone was separated from the shock by several seconds, the old mice were strongly impaired in comparison to the young mice. The researchers found highly elevated levels of a calcium-activated potassium channel, the so-called SK3 channel, in the hippocampus of old, but not of young mice. When the researchers selectively downregulated SK3 channels in the hippocampus of aged mice, the impairment in learning and memory was prevented. This suggests a new approach to treating age-related memory decline.
The results were published as a Brief Communication in the September issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://tinyurl.com/nm3r

May 2003

Rat study offers more complex model of brain aging

A study of young, middle-aged, and aged rats, trained on two memory tasks, has revealed 146 genes connected with brain aging and cognitive impairment. Importantly, the changes in gene activity had mostly begun in mid-life, suggesting that changes in gene activity in the brain in early adulthood might set off cellular or biological changes that could affect how the brain works later in life. The study provides more information on genes already linked to aging, including some involved in inflammation and oxidative stress, and also describes additional areas in which gene activity might play a role in brain aging, including declines in energy metabolism in cells and changes in the activity of neurons (nerve cells) in the brain and their ability to make new connections with each other, increases in cellular calcium levels which could trigger cell death, cholesterol synthesis, iron metabolism and the breakdown of the insulating myelin sheaths that when intact facilitate efficient communication among neurons.
The report appeared in the May 2003 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/nioa-nsi050203.htm

Is a dwindling brain chemical responsible for age-related cognitive decline?

A study of what are probably the world's oldest monkeys may explain age-related mental decline. The study found that the very old monkeys' nerves in the visual cortex lose their ability to discriminate between one signal and another and that this loss was directly related to the presence of a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (Gaba), a neurotransmitter that appears to dwindle in old age. If a lack of GABA is indeed responsible for the old neurons' indiscriminate firing, this problem may be simple enough to treat. There already exist drugs that increase GABA production, although these drugs have yet to be carefully tested on the elderly.
The study was reported in the May 2 issue of Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/aaft-sow042403.htm
http://www.newswise.com/articles/2003/5/OLDBRAIN.UUT.html
http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/03/may/oldbrain.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=402317

November 2002

PET scans of the prefrontal cortex reveal that older adults who perform better on a simple memory task display more activity on both sides of the brain, compared to both older adults who do less well, and younger adults. Although this seems counter-intuitive – the older adults who perform less well show activity patterns more similar to that of younger adults, this supports recent theory that the brain may change tactics as it ages, and that older people whose brain is more flexible can compensate for some aspects of memory decline. Whether this flexibility is neurological, or something that can be taught, is still unknown.
The study appeared in NeuroImage. Full reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/health/aging/19AGIN.html?8vd

Among aging rats, those that have difficulty navigating water mazes have no more signs of neuron damage or cell death in the hippocampus, a brain region important in memory, than do rats that navigate with little difficulty. Nor does the extent of neurogenesis (birth of new cells in an adult brain) seem to predict poorer performance. Although the researchers have found no differences in a variety of markers for postsynaptic signals between elderly rats with cognitive impairment and those without, decreases in a presynaptic signal are correlated with worse cognitive impairment. That suggests that neurons in the impaired rat brains may not be sending signals correctly.
The report was presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, 3-7 November. Full reference
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2002-SFN-3-S4

August 2002

A series of experiments on genetically altered laboratory mice showed those with low levels of the enzyme protein phosphatase-1 (PP1), were less likely to forget what they had learned. This enzyme appears to be critical in helping us forget unwanted information, but it may also be partly responsible for an increase in forgetting in older adults. It was found that as the mice aged, the level of PP1 increased. When the action of PP1 was blocked, the mice recovered their full learning and memory abilities.
The report appeared in the 29 August issue of Nature. Full reference
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/29/MN2052.DTL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2222871.stm

February 2002

Older adults show two kinds of cognitive-processing deficits: under-recruitment, where appropriate areas of the brain are less likely to be utilised without specific instruction, and non-selective recruitment, where non-relevant regions of the brain are more likely to be used. A recent imaging study confirmed that older adults were less likely than younger ones to use the critical frontal regions when performing a memory task, and more likely to use cortical regions that are not as useful. However, when subjects were given specific strategy instructions, the older adults showed increased activity in the frontal regions, and their remembering improved. Even with this support however, older adults still showed a greater tendency to use brain regions that were not useful.
The report appeared in the February 28 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-02/hhmi-tci021302.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-02/wuis-bis021402.htm

December 2001

A new model suggests why and how many cognitive abilities decline with age, and offers hope for prevention. Research in the past few years has clarified and refined our ideas about the ways in which cognitive abilities decline with age, and one of these ways is in a reduced ability to recall the context of memories. Thus, for example, an older person is less likely to be able to remember where she has heard something. According to this new model, context processing is involved in many cognitive functions — including some once thought to be independent — and therefore a reduction in the ability to remember contextual information can have wide-reaching implications for many aspects of cognition. The model suggests that context processing occurs in the prefrontal cortex and requires a certain level of the brain chemical dopamine. It may be that in normal aging, dopamine levels become low or erratic. Changes in dopamine have also been implicated in Alzheimer’s, as well as other brain-based diseases.
The research appears in the December issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-12/apa-ocf121701.htm
Full text of the article is available at
http://www.apa.org/journals/xge/press_releases/december_2001/xge1304746.html

September 2001

Source memory is memory for the broad contextual aspects surrounding an event, such as who was speaking, or whether you learned something from a book or TV. Previous research has found that it is in this aspect of memory that older people tend to be particularly poor. In a study that compared older individuals with undergraduates, it was found that those who performed above average on frontal-lobe tests, showed no significant impairment of source memory, regardless of age. Those with below-average performance, tended to have impaired source memory (as a group). In other words, source-memory problems are not an inevitable consequence of aging, as has been widely thought, but rather are a function of frontal-lobe efficiency. The proportion of older adults who experience frontal-lobe decline, at what ages, and to what degree, is unknown at this time.
What’s more, when researchers required people to consider the relation between an item and its context (source), age differences in memory performance completely disappeared, suggesting older adults can learn strategies to remember the context better.
The report appears in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, and is available online at:
http://www.apa.org/journals/xlm/press_releases/september_2001/xlm2751131.html
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-09/apa-ada083101.htm

August 2001

Evidence from a series of studies using functional positron emission tomography (PET) images suggests that one way older adults may compensate for age-related cognitive decline is by using additional regions of the brain to perform memory and information processing tasks. For example, simple short-term memory tasks involve the same brain regions in both older and younger adults, but older adults also activate a frontal cortex region that young adults use only when performing complex short-term memory tasks. This may explain why performance of older adults on complex memory tasks is usually significantly poorer than that of younger adults - the frontal cortex region that young adults will activate to help with complex short-term memory tasks is already preoccupied in older adults, and is less available to help when the task becomes more complex.
The research was conducted by University of Michigan researchers under the leadership of cognitive neuroscientist Patricia Reuter-Lorenz.
It was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco
http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2001/Aug01/r081501a.html
http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=010827&story=2

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