With the population aging and older adults staying in the workforce longer, the need to understand the memory changes that occur with aging is more urgent than ever. Although multiple theories have been proposed to explain age-related changes occurring in the lab, there is reason to believe that some laboratory assessments of memory may overestimate age-related deficits. Such overestimations can cause researchers and practitioners to propose and implement ineffective support strategies and solutions for older adults. The proposed research examines the possibility that researchers have been systematically misinterpreting age-related changes in memory by not giving older adults enough time to complete the task. The research looks at individual differences across individuals, as well as at changes within an individual over time, to test multiple competing theories that have been proposed to explain these changes. The outcomes of this research will improve the likelihood of eventual translational impact of laboratory studies, opening the possibility for new types of strategies that older adults can be taught to maximize their chance of memory success. This project will also encourage communication of a realistic and positive portrayal of memory changes with aging to individuals who will benefit the most from this knowledge - older adults and individuals in the community who regularly engage with and teach older adults - using social media and in-person events.
Memory complaints are common among older adults, and even healthy aging is associated with significant alterations in memory performance across tasks and domains. A prevailing view in the cognitive aging literature is that such changes in older adults are related to ineffective recruitment of sensory regions due to a global sensory deficit. The prominent piece of evidence in support of this theory from the cognitive neuroscience literature has been the prevalence of age-related decreases in posterior sensory recruitment across cognitive domains. Recent research has drawn the generality of this conclusion into question by revealing that age differences in sensory recruitment during memory tasks can reflect shifts in when sensory processes are engaged during retrieval rather than in whether they are engaged. In other words, aging may not strip away older adults' ability to engage sensory processes in the service of memory; but it may prevent them from engaging the processes in the same, fast manner as young adults. The proposed research brings this new possibility into focus, honing in on mechanisms that lead to temporal shifts in the recruitment of sensory regions and the behavioral consequences of these shifts. This research examines possible alternatives to the standard sensory deficit hypothesis, using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. To accomplish the research aims, this proposal brings together a team of researchers who have a history of collaboration and complementary expertise in the cognitive neuroscience of aging and memory, structural MRI analysis, physiological age-related neural changes, and quantitative methods.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
