Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA.
Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Jul;33(7):1148-55. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.09.026. Epub 2010 Nov 12.
This study examines whether midlife change in episodic memory predicts hippocampal volume in old age. From the Seattle Longitudinal Study we retrospectively identified 84 healthy, cognitively normal individuals, age 52 to 87, whose episodic memory had reliably declined (n = 33), improved (n = 28) or remained stable (n = 23) over a 14-year period in midlife (age 43-63). Midlife memory improvement was associated with 13% larger hippocampal volume (p < 0.01) in old age (age 66-87), compared with old age individuals whose midlife episodic memory had either declined or remained stable during midlife. Midlife memory change did not predict total hippocampal volume for those currently in late middle age (age 52-65). The pattern of findings was not modified by gender, apolipoprotein ε4 status, education or current memory performance. Change in midlife memory scores over 14 years, but not any single assessment, predicted hippocampal volumes in old age, emphasizing the importance of longitudinal data in examining brain-cognition relationships. These findings suggest that improvement in memory in midlife is associated with sparing of hippocampal volume in later life.
这项研究考察了中年时期情景记忆的变化是否可以预测老年时的海马体体积。我们通过西雅图纵向研究，回顾性地确定了 84 名健康、认知正常的个体，年龄在 52 岁至 87 岁之间，他们的情景记忆在中年（43-63 岁）期间可靠地下降（n=33）、改善（n=28）或保持稳定（n=23）。与中年时情景记忆下降或保持稳定的老年个体相比，中年时情景记忆改善与老年时（66-87 岁）海马体体积增加 13%（p<0.01）相关。对于目前处于中老年（52-65 岁）的个体，中年记忆变化与总海马体体积无关。性别、载脂蛋白 E4 状态、教育程度或当前记忆表现均未改变研究结果模式。14 年来记忆评分的变化，而不是任何单一评估，预测了老年时的海马体体积，这强调了在检查大脑认知关系时使用纵向数据的重要性。这些发现表明，中年时期记忆的改善与晚年海马体体积的保护有关。
