Ageing and the self-reference effect in memory

Gutchess, Angela H.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.; Yoon, Carolyn; Schacter, Daniel L.

doi:10.1080/09658210701701394

Cited by 141 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Medial prefrontal cortex is critical to the processing of self-relevant information in that increased engagement of the region during encoding distinguishes items later remembered from those later forgotten . Furthermore, selfreferencing improves memory to the same extent for both young and elderly, which suggests that self-referencing operates similarly in both age groups (Gutchess, Kensinger, Yoon, & Schacter, 2007c;Mueller, Wonderlich, & Dugan, 1986). In contrast to the default state literature, these regions are engaged, rather than suppressed or deactivated, during judgments of self-relevance.…”

contrasting

confidence: 38%

“…Participants judged whether the adjective described them (Self trials), described Albert Einstein (Other trials), or was presented in upper case (Case trials). Albert Einstein was selected as an appropriate target person based on prior work (Gutchess et al, 2007c) that established that young and elderly did not differ in their familiarity with or attitude towards him. Figure 1 presents for each of the three conditions, across two runs in the scanner in an event-related design.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aging, self-referencing, and medial prefrontal cortex

Gutchess

Kensinger

Schacter

2007

Social Neuroscience

Self Cite

171

143

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The lateral prefrontal cortex undergoes both structural and functional changes with healthy aging. In contrast, there is little structural change in the medial prefrontal cortex, but relatively little is known about the functional changes to this region with age. Using an event-related fMRI design, we investigated the response of medial prefrontal cortex during self-referencing in order to compare age groups on a task that young and elderly perform similarly and that is known to actively engage the region in young adults. Nineteen young (M age023) and seventeen elderly (M age072) judged whether adjectives described themselves, another person, or were presented in upper case. We assessed the overlap in activations between young and elderly for the self-reference effect (self vs. other person), and found that both groups engage medial prefrontal cortex and mid-cingulate during self-referencing. The only cerebral differences between the groups in self versus other personality assessment were found in somatosensory and motorrelated areas. In contrast, age-related modulations were found in the cerebral network recruited for emotional valence processing. Elderly (but not young) showed increased activity in the dorsal prefrontal cortex for positive relative to negative items, which could reflect an increase in controlled processing of positive information for elderly adults.

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contrasting

confidence: 38%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging, self-referencing, and medial prefrontal cortex

Gutchess

Kensinger

Schacter

2007

Social Neuroscience

Self Cite

171

143

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“…Age differences in making judgments about personality traits in regards to one's self have not been found (Keightley, Winocur, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006;Ruby et al, 2009), and the self reference effect in episodic memory is also preserved into older age (Glisky & Marquine, 2009;Gutchess, Kensinger, Yoon, & Schacter, 2007). Although this work suggests that some aspects of self-reference are not markedly altered as we age, some of the other types of related processing, mentioned above, are influenced by aging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 48%

Age differences in default and reward networks during processing of personally relevant information

Grady

Grigg

2012

Neuropsychologia

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We recently found activity in default mode and reward-related regions during self-relevant tasks in young adults. Here we examine the effect of aging on engagement of the default network (DN) and reward network (RN) during these tasks. Previous studies have shown reduced engagement of the DN and reward areas in older adults, but the influence of age on these circuits during selfrelevant tasks has not been examined. The tasks involved judging personality traits about one's self or a well known other person. There were no age differences in reaction time on the tasks but older adults had more positive Self and Other judgments, whereas younger adults had more negative judgments. Both groups had increased DN and RN activity during the self-relevant tasks, relative to non-self tasks, but this increase was reduced in older compared to young adults. Functional connectivity of both networks during the tasks was weaker in the older relative to younger adults. Intrinsic functional connectivity, measured at rest, also was weaker in the older adults in the DN, but not in the RN. These results suggest that, in younger adults, the processing of personally relevant information involves robust activation of and functional connectivity within these two networks, in line with current models that emphasize strong links between the self and reward. The finding that older adults had more positive judgments, but weaker engagement and less consistent functional connectivity in these networks, suggests potential brain mechanisms for the "positivity bias" with aging.

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“…Indeed, in these studies, retrieval performance is better for information that has been encoded in reference to the self than for information that has been processed semantically or in reference to other people. This wellknown cognitive phenomenon, named the Self Reference Effect (SRE; Rogers et al, 1977), is a strong characteristic of human cognition since it has been observed in various populations including healthy older people (Gutchess et al, 2007), with various materials and various paradigms at encoding and recognition and with different designs (for a review see Symons and Johnson, 1997).…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and neuroimaging evidence of impaired interaction between self and memory in Alzheimer's disease

Genon

Bahri

Collette

et al. 2014

Cortex

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In human cognition, self and memory processes strongly interact, as evidenced by the memory advantage for self-referential materials (Self Reference Effect (SRE) and Self Reference Recollection Effect (SRRE)). The current study examined this interaction at the behavioural level and its neural correlates in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Healthy older controls (HC) and AD patients performed trait-adjectives judgements either for selfrelevance or for other-relevance (encoding phase). In a first experiment, the encoding and subsequent yes-no recognition phases were administrated in an MRI scanner. Brain activation as measured by fMRI was examined during self-relevance judgements and anatomical images were used to search for correlation between the memory advantage for self-related items and grey matter density (GMD). In a second experiment, participants described the retrieval experience that had driven their recognition decisions (familiarity vs. recollective experience).The behavioural results revealed that the SRE and SRRE were impaired in AD patients compared to HC participants. Furthermore, verbal reports revealed that the retrieval of selfrelated information was preferentially associated with the retrieval of contextual details, such as source memory in the HC participants, but less so in the AD patients. Our imaging findings revealed that both groups activated the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) at encoding during self-relevance judgments. However, the variable and limited memory advantage for selfrelated information was associated with GMD in the lateral prefrontal cortex in the AD patients, a region supporting high-order processes linking self and memory. These findings suggest that even if AD patients engage MPFC during self-referential judgments, the retrieval of self-related memories is qualitatively and quantitatively impaired in relation with altered high-order processes in the lateral PFC.

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Ageing and the self-reference effect in memory

Cited by 141 publications

References 48 publications

Aging, self-referencing, and medial prefrontal cortex

Aging, self-referencing, and medial prefrontal cortex

Age differences in default and reward networks during processing of personally relevant information

Cognitive and neuroimaging evidence of impaired interaction between self and memory in Alzheimer's disease

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