Georgia Institute of Technology.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Jul 1;34(8):1376-1396. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01871.
When we update our episodic memories with new information, mnemonic competition between old and new memories may result because of the presence of shared features. Behavioral studies suggest that this competition can lead to proactive interference, resulting in unsuccessful memory updating, particularly for older adults. It is difficult with behavioral data alone to measure the reactivation of old, overlapping memories during retrieval and its impact on memory for new memories. Here, we applied encoding-retrieval representational similarity (ERS) analysis to EEG data to estimate event-specific encoding-related neural reinstatement of old associations during the retrieval of new ones and its impact on memory for new associations in young and older adults. Our results showed that older adults' new associative memory performance was more negatively impacted by proactive interference from old memories than that of young adults. In both age groups, ERS for old associative memories was greater for trials for which new associative memories were forgotten than remembered. In contrast, ERS for new associative memories was greater when they were remembered than forgotten. In addition, older adults showed relatively attenuated target (i.e., new associates) and lure (i.e., old associates) ERS effects compared to younger adults. Collectively, these results suggest that the neural reinstatement of interfering memories during retrieval contributes to proactive interference across age, whereas overall attenuated ERS effect in older adults might reflect their reduced memory fidelity.
当我们用新信息更新情景记忆时，由于存在共享特征，新旧记忆之间可能会发生记忆竞争。行为研究表明，这种竞争会导致前摄干扰，从而导致记忆更新失败，尤其是对老年人而言。仅通过行为数据很难衡量在检索过程中旧的、重叠记忆的重新激活及其对新记忆的影响。在这里，我们应用编码-检索代表性相似性（ERS）分析来测量 EEG 数据，以估计在检索新记忆时旧关联的特定事件相关神经再激活及其对年轻和老年成年人新关联记忆的影响。我们的结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人的新联想记忆表现受到旧记忆前摄干扰的负面影响更大。在两个年龄组中，对于新联想记忆被遗忘而不是被记住的试验，旧联想记忆的 ERS 更大。相比之下，当新联想记忆被记住时，其 ERS 会更大。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人的目标（即新联想）和诱饵（即旧联想）ERS 效应相对减弱。总的来说，这些结果表明，在检索过程中干扰记忆的神经再激活会导致跨年龄的前摄干扰，而老年人整体减弱的 ERS 效应可能反映了他们记忆保真度的降低。
