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Age does not increase rate of forgetting over weeks—Neuroanatomical volumes and visual memory across the adult life-span

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2005

ANDERS M. FJELL
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
KRISTINE B. WALHOVD
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
IVAR REINVANG
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
ARVID LUNDERVOLD
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology & Locus on Neuroscience, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
ANDERS M. DALE
Affiliation:
MGH-NMR Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts MR Center, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway Departments of Neurosciences and Radiology, University of California, San Diego
BRIAN T. QUINN
Affiliation:
MGH-NMR Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
NIKOS MAKRIS
Affiliation:
Center for Morphometric Analysis, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
BRUCE FISCHL
Affiliation:
MGH-NMR Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate whether age affects visual memory retention across extended time intervals. In addition, we wanted to study how memory capabilities across different time intervals are related to the volume of different neuroanatomical structures (right hippocampus, right cortex, right white matter). One test of recognition (CVMT) and one test of recall (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test) were administered, giving measures of immediate recognition/recall, 20–30 min recognition/recall, and recognition/recall at a mean of 75 days. Volumetric measures of right hemisphere hippocampus, cortex, and white matter were obtained through an automated labelling procedure of MRI recordings. Results did not demonstrate a steeper rate of forgetting for older participants when the retention intervals were increased, indicating that older people have spared ability to retain information in the long-term store. Differences in neuroanatomical volumes could explain up to 36% of the variance in memory performance, but were not significantly related to rates of forgetting. Cortical volume and hippocampal volume were in some cases independent as predictors of memory function. Generally, cortical volume was a better predictor of recognition memory than hippocampal volume, while the 2 structures did not differ in their predictive power of recall abilities. While neuroanatomical volumetric differences can explain some of the differences in memory functioning between younger and older persons, the hippocampus does not seem to be unique in this respect. (JINS, 2005, 11, 2–15.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society

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