Matzel Louis D, Wass Christopher, Kolata Stefan, Light Kenneth, Colas Danielle C
Department of Psychology, Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
Learn Mem. 2009 Sep 30;16(10):590-4. doi: 10.1101/lm.1503209. Print 2009 Oct.
Learning impairments and the instability of memory are defining characteristics of cognitive aging. However, it is unclear if deficits in the expression of new memories reflect an accelerated decay of the target memory or a consequence of inefficient learning. Here, aged mice (19-21-mo old) exhibited acquisition deficits (relative to 3-5-mo old mice) on three learning tasks, although these deficits were overcome with additional training. When tested after a 30-d retention interval, the performance of aged animals was impaired if initial learning had been incomplete. However, if trained to equivalent levels of competence, aged animals exhibited no retention deficits relative to their young counterparts. These results suggest that age-related "memory" impairments can be overcome through a more effective learning regimen.
学习障碍和记忆的不稳定性是认知衰老的典型特征。然而，新记忆表达方面的缺陷究竟是反映了目标记忆的加速衰退，还是低效学习的结果，目前尚不清楚。在这里，老年小鼠（19 - 21月龄）在三项学习任务中表现出习得缺陷（相对于3 - 5月龄小鼠），不过这些缺陷通过额外训练得以克服。在30天的保留期后进行测试时，如果初始学习不完整，老年动物的表现会受损。然而，如果训练至同等能力水平，老年动物相对于年轻同类则没有表现出保留缺陷。这些结果表明，与年龄相关的“记忆”障碍可以通过更有效的学习方案来克服。
