Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-fg9bn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-24T15:25:27.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brain Functional Correlates of Working Memory: Reduced Load-Modulated Activation and Deactivation in Aging without Hyperactivation or Functional Reorganization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2014

Allison R. Kaup ,
Sean P.A. Drummond  and
Lisa T. Eyler
Allison R. Kaup*
Affiliation:
Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, San Francisco VA Medical Center and the Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California San Diego State University / University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, California
Sean P.A. Drummond
Affiliation:
Psychology Service, VA San Diego Health Care System, San Diego, California Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California
Lisa T. Eyler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California The Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Allison R. Kaup, San Francisco VA Medical Center, 4150 Clement Street, 116H, San Francisco, CA 94121. E-mail: allison.kaup@ucsf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We aimed to identify brain functional correlates of working memory performance in aging, in hopes of facilitating understanding of mechanisms that promote better versus worse working memory in late-life. Among 64 healthy adults, aged 23 to 78, we examined the relationship between age, working memory performance, and brain functional response during task performance. We focused on the association between working memory load-modulated functional response and individual differences in performance and whether these function-performance relationships differed with age. As expected, older age was associated with poorer working memory performance. Older age was also associated with reduced load-modulated activation including in bilateral prefrontal and parietal regions and left caudate as well as reduced deactivation including in the medial prefrontal cortex. Contrary to findings of hyperactivation in aging, we found no evidence of increased activation with older age. Positive associations identified between brain response and performance did not differ with age. Our findings suggest that the neural mechanisms underlying better versus worse working memory performance are age-invariant across adulthood, and argue against a pattern of functional reorganization in aging. Results are discussed within the broader literature, in which significant heterogeneity in findings between studies has been common. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–6)

Keywords

AgingWorking memoryCognitionFunctional neuroimagingfMRIIndividual differences

Information

Type
Brief Communication
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 20 , Supplement 9 , October 2014 , pp. 945 - 950
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Blair, J.R., & Spreen, O. (1989). Predicting premorbid IQ: A revision of the national adult reading test. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 3(2), 129–136.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R. (2002). Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: The HAROLD model. Psychology and Aging, 17(1), 85–100.Google Scholar
Cappell, K.A., Gmeindl, L., & Reuter-Lorenz, P.A. (2010). Age differences in prefontal recruitment during verbal working memory maintenance depend on memory load. Cortex, 46(4), 462–473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, R.W. (1996). AFNI: Software for analysis and visualization of functional magnetic resonance neuroimages. Computers and Biomedical Research, 29(3), 162–173.Google Scholar
D’Esposito, M., Deouell, L.Y., & Gazzaley, A. (2003). Alterations in the BOLD fMRI signal with ageing and disease: A challenge for neuroimaging. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(11), 863–872.Google Scholar
Davis, S.W., Dennis, N.A., Daselaar, S.M., Fleck, M.S., & Cabeza, R. (2008). Que PASA? The posterior-anterior shift in aging. Cerebral Cortex, 18(5), 1201–1209.Google Scholar
Gazzaley, A., Sheridan, M.A., Cooney, J.W., & D’Esposito, M. (2007). Age-related deficits in component processes of working memory. Neuropsychology, 21(5), 532.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grady, C.L., Springer, M.V., Hongwanishkul, D., McIntosh, A.R., & Winocur, G. (2006). Age-related changes in brain activity across the adult lifespan. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(2), 227–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grober, E., Sliwinski, M., & Korey, S.R. (1991). Development and validation of a model for estimating premorbid verbal intelligence in the elderly. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 13(6), 933–949.Google Scholar
Macpherson, H.N., White, D.J., Ellis, K.A., Stough, C., Camfield, D., Silberstein, R., & Pipingas, A. (2014). Age-related changes to the neural correlates of working memory which emerge after midlife. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 6, 70.Google Scholar
Nagel, I.E., Preuschhof, C., Li, S., Nyberg, L., Backman, L., Lindenberger, U., & Heekeren, H.R. (2011). Load modulation of BOLD response and connectivity predicts working memory performance in younger and older adults. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(8), 2030–2045.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, D.C., Lautenschlager, G., Hedden, T., Davidson, N.S., Smith, A.D., & Smith, P.K. (2002). Models of visuospatial and verbal memory across the adult life span. Psychology and Aging, 17(2), 299–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prakash, R.S., Heo, S., Voss, M.W., Patterson, B., & Kramer, A.F. (2012). Age-related differences in cortical recruitment and suppression: Implications for cognitive performance. Behavioural Brain Research, 230(1), 192–200.Google Scholar
Rajah, M.N., & D’Esposito, M. (2005). Region-specific changes in prefrontal function with age: A review of PET and fMRI studies on working and episodic memory. Brain, 128, 1964–1983.Google Scholar
Reuter-Lorenz, P.A., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E., Hartley, A., Miller, A., Marshuetz, C., & Koeppe, R.A. (2000). Age differences in the frontal lateralization of verbal and spatial working memory revealed by PET. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(1), 174–187.Google Scholar
Rypma, B., Berger, J.S., Genova, H.M., Rebbechi, D., & D’Esposito, M. (2005). Dissociating age-related changes in cognitive strategy and neural efficiency using event-related fMRI. Cortex, 41, 582–594.Google Scholar
Rypma, B., Eldreth, D.A., & Rebbechi, D. (2007). Age-related differences in activation-performance relations in delayed-response tasks: A multiple component analysis. Cortex, 43, 65–76.Google Scholar
Rypma, B., Prabhakaran, V., Desmond, J.E., & Gabrieli, J.D. (2001). Age differences in prefrontal cortical activity in working memory. Psychology and Aging, 16(3), 371–384.Google Scholar
Sala-Llonch, R., Arenaza-Urquijo, E.M., Valls-Pedret, C., Vidal-Piñeiro, D., Bargalló, N., Junqué, C., & Bartrés-Faz, D. (2012). Dynamic functional reorganizations and relationship with working memory performance in healthy aging. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 152.Google Scholar
Sambataro, F., Murty, V.P., Callicott, J.H., Tan, H.Y., Das, S., Weinberger, D.R., & Mattay, V.S. (2010). Age-related alterations in default mode network: Impact on working memory performance. Neurobiology of Aging, 31(5), 839–852.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Kaup Supplementary Material

Tables S1-S2 and Figure S1

Download Kaup Supplementary Material(File)
File 483.6 KB