Turney Indira C, Steinkrauss Ashley C, Wagner Rebecca L, Chamberlain Jordan D, West John T, Hakun Jonathan G, Ross Lesley A, Kirchhoff Brenda A, Dennis Nancy A
Laboratory of Epidemiology and Populations Sciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
Neurobiol Aging. 2025 Mar;147:187-202. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2024.12.007. Epub 2025 Jan 5.
The growing population of older adults emphasizes the need to develop interventions that prevent or delay some of the cognitive decline that accompanies aging. In particular, as memory impairment is the foremost cognitive deficit affecting older adults, it is vital to develop interventions that improve memory function. This study addressed the problem of false memories in aging by training older adults to use details of past events during memory retrieval to distinguish targets from related lures. We examined the neural basis of a retrieval-based monitoring strategy by assessing changes in univariate BOLD activity and discriminability of targets and lures pre and post training. Results showed training-related decreases in false memory rates with no alterations to hit rates. Both training and practice were associated with altered recruitment of a frontoparietal monitoring network as well as benefits to neural discriminability within network regions. Participants with lower baseline neural discriminability between target and lure items exhibited the largest changes in neural discriminability. Collectively, our results highlight the benefits of training for reductions of false memories in aging. They also provide an understanding of the neural mechanisms that support these reductions.
老年人口的不断增长凸显了开发干预措施的必要性，这些干预措施可以预防或延缓一些伴随衰老而来的认知衰退。特别是，由于记忆障碍是影响老年人的首要认知缺陷，开发改善记忆功能的干预措施至关重要。本研究通过训练老年人在记忆检索过程中使用过去事件的细节来区分目标与相关诱饵，解决了衰老过程中的错误记忆问题。我们通过评估单变量血氧水平依赖（BOLD）活动的变化以及训练前后目标和诱饵的可辨别性，研究了基于检索的监测策略的神经基础。结果显示，与训练相关的错误记忆率下降，命中率没有改变。训练和练习都与额顶叶监测网络的募集改变以及网络区域内神经可辨别性的改善有关。目标和诱饵项目之间基线神经可辨别性较低的参与者，其神经可辨别性变化最大。总体而言，我们的结果突出了训练对减少衰老过程中错误记忆的益处。它们还提供了对支持这些减少的神经机制的理解。
