PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Younger people have 'high definition' memories

Researchers look at age-related differences on how memories are stored and retrieved

2014-01-14
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Younger people have 'high definition' memories Researchers look at age-related differences on how memories are stored and retrieved It's not that younger people are able to remember more than older people. Their memories seem better because they are able to retrieve them in higher definition. So says Philip Ko of Vanderbilt University in the US, in a study that sheds light on how differences in the behavioral and neural activity of younger and older adults influence the different generations' ability to store and recall memories. The findings appear in the journal Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, published by Springer.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Brandon Ally, Ko led the research team to focus on visual working memory, a person's ability to briefly retain a limited amount of visual information in the absence of visual stimuli. Their examination of why this function is reduced during the course of healthy aging took the multiple stages of encoding, maintenance, and the retrieval of memorized information into account.

They ran 11 older adults of around 67 years of age and 13 younger adults of approximately 23 years of age through a task called 'visual change detection.' This task consisted of viewing two, three or four colored dots and memorizing their appearance. These dots disappeared, and then after a few seconds the participants were presented with a single dot appearing in one of the memorized colors or a new color. The accuracy of their response ('same' or 'different') was considered to reflect how well they memorized the colors. This accuracy of response is referred to as 'behavioral measure.' Electroencephalographic data was also collected from the participants as they performed the task for a neural measure of their memory capacity.

Dr. Ko found that while behavioral measures indicated a lower capacity in older adults than younger adults to memorize items, the neural measure of memory capacity was very similar in both groups. In other words, during the maintenance stage, both groups stored the same number of items. The study is the first to show that the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates in the working memory capacity of older adults can be dissociated.

The researchers suggest, however, that older adults store the items at a lower resolution than younger adults, resulting in impaired recollection. The consequence of these differences in resolution may be apparent during retrieval from visual working memory. Unlike older adults, younger adults may be able to use perceptual implicit memory, a different kind of visual memory, to give them a 'boost' when they are trying to retrieve the stored information.

"We don't know why older adults perform poorly when their neural activity suggests their memory capacity is intact, but we have two leads," Ko said. "First, further analysis of this current dataset and other studies from our laboratory suggest that older adults retrieve memories differently than younger adults. Second, there is emerging evidence from other labs suggesting that the quality of older adults' memories is poorer than younger adults. In other words, while older adults might store the same number of items, their memory of each item is 'fuzzier' than that of younger adults."

### Reference: Ko, P.C. et al. (2013). Understanding age-related reductions in visual working memory capacity: examining the stages of change detection, Attention, Perception & Psychophysics. DOI 10.3758/s13414-013-0585-z

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

UNC researchers harness sun's energy during day for use at night

2014-01-14
UNC researchers harness sun's energy during day for use at night Solar energy has long been used as a clean alternative to fossil fuels such as coal and oil, but it could only be harnessed during the day when the sun's rays were strongest. ...

Regenstrief and IU review finds lack of delirium screening in the emergency department

2014-01-14
Regenstrief and IU review finds lack of delirium screening in the emergency department INDIANAPOLIS -- Delirium in older patients in an emergency room setting can foretell other health issues. But according to a new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, ...

Dance and virtual reality: A promising treatment for urinary incontinence in elderly women

2014-01-14
Dance and virtual reality: A promising treatment for urinary incontinence in elderly women This news release is available in French. Virtual reality, dance and fun are not the first things that come to mind when we think of treating urinary ...

Brain structure shows who is most sensitive to pain

2014-01-14
Brain structure shows who is most sensitive to pain WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Jan. 14, 2014 – Everybody feels pain differently, and brain structure may hold the clue to these differences. In a study published in the current online issue of the journal ...

Geriatric health professionals experience added burden when caring for own family members

2014-01-14
Geriatric health professionals experience added burden when caring for own family members (Boston) --In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) ...

Georgia Tech researchers reveal phrases that pay on Kickstarter

2014-01-14
Georgia Tech researchers reveal phrases that pay on Kickstarter New study finds that pitch language plays major role in success of projects on popular crowdfunding site Researchers at Georgia Tech studying the burgeoning phenomenon of crowdfunding have ...

Potential future data storage at domain boundaries

2014-01-14
Potential future data storage at domain boundaries Scientists discover polar domain walls in antiferroelectric materials This news release is available in German. Storing more and more in an ever-smaller space – what sounds impossible is in fact just ...

Research shows early promise of new drug for cancers caused by viruses

2014-01-14
Research shows early promise of new drug for cancers caused by viruses New Orleans, LA – Christopher Parsons, MD, Director of the HIV Malignancies Program at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, is the senior author of a paper that is the ...

Illinois study identifies 3 risk factors most highly correlated with child obesity

2014-01-14
Illinois study identifies 3 risk factors most highly correlated with child obesity URBANA, Ill. – A University of Illinois study has identified the three most significant risk factors for child ...

Scientists show how insulin-producing cells may fail in diabetes, how they might someday be restored

2014-01-14
Scientists show how insulin-producing cells may fail in diabetes, how they might someday be restored These cells may sometimes revert to a non-functional state, but other pancreatic cells may someday step in to replace them Two new studies led ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Call for papers: 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE 2025)

A novel disturbance rejection optimal guidance method for enhancing precision landing performance of reusable rockets

New scan method unveils lung function secrets

Searching for hidden medieval stories from the island of the Sagas

Breakthrough study reveals bumetanide treatment restores early social communication in fragile X syndrome mouse model

Neuroscience leader reveals oxytocin's crucial role beyond the 'love hormone' label

Twelve questions to ask your doctor for better brain health in the new year

Microelectronics Science Research Centers to lead charge on next-generation designs and prototypes

Study identifies genetic cause for yellow nail syndrome

New drug to prevent migraine may start working right away

Good news for people with MS: COVID-19 infection not tied to worsening symptoms

Department of Energy announces $179 million for Microelectronics Science Research Centers

Human-related activities continue to threaten global climate and productivity

Public shows greater acceptance of RSV vaccine as vaccine hesitancy appears to have plateaued

Unraveling the power and influence of language

Gene editing tool reduces Alzheimer’s plaque precursor in mice

TNF inhibitors prevent complications in kids with Crohn's disease, recommended as first-line therapies

Twisted Edison: Bright, elliptically polarized incandescent light

Structural cell protein also directly regulates gene transcription

Breaking boundaries: Researchers isolate quantum coherence in classical light systems

Brain map clarifies neuronal connectivity behind motor function

Researchers find compromised indoor air in homes following Marshall Fire

Months after Colorado's Marshall Fire, residents of surviving homes reported health symptoms, poor air quality

Identification of chemical constituents and blood-absorbed components of Shenqi Fuzheng extract based on UPLC-triple-TOF/MS technology

'Glass fences' hinder Japanese female faculty in international research, study finds

Vector winds forecast by numerical weather prediction models still in need of optimization

New research identifies key cellular mechanism driving Alzheimer’s disease

Trends in buprenorphine dispensing among adolescents and young adults in the US

Emergency department physicians vary widely in their likelihood of hospitalizing a patient, even within the same facility

Firearm and motor vehicle pediatric deaths— intersections of age, sex, race, and ethnicity

[Press-News.org] Younger people have 'high definition' memories
Researchers look at age-related differences on how memories are stored and retrieved