Shao Xuhao, Liu Wenzhi, Guo Ying, Zhu Bi
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Jul 19;14:884993. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.884993. eCollection 2022.
After hearing a list of words (e.g., dream, awake, and bed), older adults tended to have more difficulty than younger adults in distinguishing targets (e.g., dream) from lures (e.g., sleep) and foils (e.g., pen) in a visual recognition test. Age-related reduction in neural discriminability in the visual cortex has been linked to deficits in memory discriminability of pictures. However, no study has examined age differences in auditory discrimination and prefrontal monitoring during true and false memory retrieval after hearing words. The current study used a visual recognition test following an auditory study of words and showed that older adults had lower true recognition and higher propensity for high-confidence false recognition compared to young adults. Using classification-based multivariate pattern analysis for functional neuroimaging data during memory retrieval, we found that neural activation patterns in the primary auditory cortex could be used to distinguish between auditorily-studied targets and unstudied lures in young adults, but not in older adults. Moreover, prefrontal monitoring for lures was weaker in older adults as compared to young adults. Individual differences analysis showed that neural discriminability in the primary auditory cortex was positively related to true recognition, whereas prefrontal activation for lures was negatively related to the propensity for high-confidence false recognition in young adults but not in older adults. Together, age differences in true and false memories following auditory study are associated with reduced neural discriminability in the primary auditory cortex and reduced prefrontal monitoring during retrieval.
在听完一系列单词（例如，梦、醒着、床）后，在一项视觉识别测试中，与年轻人相比，老年人在将目标词（例如，梦）与诱饵词（例如，睡眠）和干扰词（例如，钢笔）区分开来时往往会遇到更多困难。视觉皮层中与年龄相关的神经辨别能力下降与图片记忆辨别能力的缺陷有关。然而，尚无研究考察在听完单词后进行真假记忆检索期间听觉辨别和前额叶监测方面的年龄差异。当前的研究在对单词进行听觉研究后使用了一项视觉识别测试，结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人的真实识别率较低，且高置信度错误识别的倾向较高。在记忆检索期间，对功能性神经成像数据使用基于分类的多变量模式分析，我们发现，在年轻人中，初级听觉皮层的神经激活模式可用于区分听觉学习过的目标词和未学习过的诱饵词，但在老年人中则不然。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人对诱饵词的前额叶监测较弱。个体差异分析表明，初级听觉皮层的神经辨别能力与真实识别呈正相关，而在年轻人中，对诱饵词的前额叶激活与高置信度错误识别的倾向呈负相关，但在老年人中并非如此。总之，听觉学习后的真假记忆中的年龄差异与初级听觉皮层中神经辨别能力下降以及检索期间前额叶监测减弱有关。
