Cortical EEG correlates of successful memory encoding: Implications for lifespan comparisons

Abstract

In the course of their lives, individuals experience a myriad of events. Some of them leave stable traces, and others fade away quickly. Recent advances in functional imaging methods allow researchers to contrast neuronal patterns of remembered against not remembered events at initial encoding. Research on young adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), intracranial, and standard electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings has identified differences between remembered and not remembered items in patterns of medio-temporal and prefrontal brain activity. However, little is known about the ways in which such neuronal patterns of successful encoding evolve across the lifespan as a function of maturation, senescence, and the accumulation of experience. Here, we first review empirical evidence on neuronal correlates of successful memory from middle childhood to old age. Based on the observation that associative and strategic components of episodic memory seem to follow different age gradients, we propose a conceptual framework for predicting age changes in neuronal patterns of successful encoding. r

Inter-individual performance differences in younger and older adults differentially relate to amplitude modulations and phase stability of oscillations controlling working memory contents

“…Similar to other recent studies (Duverne et al, 2009;Nagel et al, 2009Nagel et al, , 2011Schneider-Garces et al, 2010), the present results underscore the heterogeneity of WM and episodic memory functioning among older adults, and are consistent with the proposition that older adults with more "youth-like" processing patterns tend to show higher levels of performance (e.g., Nagel et al, 2009). The present results are in line with a recently proposed conceptual framework for studying lifespan changes in episodic (Shing et al, 2008Werkle-Bergner et al, 2006) and working memory (Sander et al, 2011a(Sander et al, , 2011b, that dissociates the contributions of low-level feature binding and (strategic) control components to adult age differences in memory performance. Fig.…”

Frontal midline theta connectivity is related to efficiency of WM maintenance and is affected by aging

“…This decline of FC specifically seen during WM maintenance related to advancing age (indicated by partial eta squared scores of age main effects of each ROIs) was observed to be more apparent in the anterior than the posterior brain regions. The age related differences of slow oscillatory activities might be attributed to the general effect that with healthy aging peak frequencies of delta and theta bands may change (Werkle-Bergner et al, 2006). However, in the present results showing WM maintenance specific decline of FC with advancing age, not seen during the oddball task rule out this interpretation.…”

“…For instance, age-related deficits in prefrontal cortex activation were shown to have a great impact on tasks which were dependent on executive functions (West, 1999;Cabeza, 2004 for reviews). With healthy aging, delta (0.5-4 Hz) and theta activity diminishes, and fast frequencies (beta:13-30 Hz and gamma:40-70 Hz) are enhanced (Werkle-Bergner et al, 2006;Cummins et al, 2008). Karrasch et al, reported that older adults showed less theta event related synchronization during the encoding period in a Sternberg memory task (Karrasch, Laine, Rapinoja, & Krause, 2004).…”

Adult age differences in memory for name–face associations: The effects of intentional and incidental learning

“…Future studies need to make use of paradigms that vary the relative contributions of both sets of processes to better understand their interactions (cf. Werkle-Bergner, Mü ller, Li, & Lindenberger, 2006).…”