Hippocampal activity during the transverse patterning task declines with cognitive competence but not with age

Leirer, Vera Maria and Wienbruch, Christian and Paul-Jordanov, Isabella and Kolassa, Stephan and Elbert, Thomas and Kolassa, Iris- Tatjana (2010) Hippocampal activity during the transverse patterning task declines with cognitive competence but not with age. BMC Neuroscience, 11: 113. ISSN 1471-2202

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Abstract

Background The hippocampus is a brain region that is particularly affected by age-related morphological changes. It is generally assumed that a loss in hippocampal volume results in functional deficits that contribute to age-related cognitive decline. In a combined cross-sectional behavioural and magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we investigated whether hippocampal-associated neural current flow during a transverse patterning task - which requires learning relational associations between stimuli - correlates with age and whether it is modulated by cognitive competence. Results Better performance in several tests of verbal memory, verbal fluency and executive function was indeed associated with higher hippocampal neural activity. Age, however, was not related to the strength of hippocampal neural activity: elderly participants responded slower than younger individuals but on average produced the same neural mass activity. Conclusions Our results suggest that in non-pathological aging, hippocampal neural activity does not decrease with age but is rather related to cognitive competence.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
BMC Neuroscience
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2800/2804
Subjects:
?? cellular and molecular neuroscience ??
ID Code:
134031
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
22 Jun 2019 09:14
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 19:27