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. 2000 Nov 15;20(22):8410-6.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-22-08410.2000.

Corticolimbic interactions associated with performance on a short-term memory task are modified by age

V Della-Maggiore  1 , A B Sekuler, C L Grady, P J Bennett, R Sekuler, A R McIntosh
Affiliations

Corticolimbic interactions associated with performance on a short-term memory task are modified by age

V Della-Maggiore et al. J Neurosci. .

Abstract

Aging has been associated with a decline in memory abilities dependent on hippocampal processing. We investigated whether the functional interactions between the hippocampus and related cortical areas were modified by age. Young and old subjects' brain activity was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) while they performed a short-term memory task (delayed visual discrimination) in which they determined which of two successively presented sine-wave gratings had the highest spatial frequency. Behavioral performance was equal for the two groups. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis of PET images identified a hippocampal voxel whose activity was similarly correlated with performance across groups. Using this voxel as a seed, a second PLS analysis identified cortical regions functionally connected to the hippocampus. Quantification of the neural interactions with structural equation modeling suggested that a different hippocampal network supported performance in the elderly. Unlike the neural network engaged by the young, which included prefrontal cortex Brodmann's area (BA) 10, fusiform gyrus, and posterior cingulate gyrus, the network recruited by the old included more anterior areas, i.e., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9/46), middle cingulate gyrus, and caudate nucleus. Recruitment of a distinct corticolimbic network for visual memory in the elderly suggests that age-related neurobiological deterioration not only results in focal changes but also in the modification of large-scale network operations.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Seed PLS analysis. Shown are the singular images (top) corresponding to LV1 and LV2 and scan profiles (bottom) (correlation of brain scores and rCBF of RHIPP) for young and old subjects. Brain scores were obtained from the product of the singular image and each subject's image. Brain regions whose activity correlated positively with the pattern shown in the scan profile (positive saliences) are depicted in the singular image in red, whereas brain regions whose activity correlated negatively with the pattern shown in the scan profile (negative saliences) are depicted in the singular image inblue. Correlation coefficients between brain scores and RHIPP rCBF are displayed for each plot as r. MRI brain slices for the singular images are in standard atlas space (Talairach, 1988) and range from 20 mm ventral (top left) to 36 mm dorsal (bottom right) to the anterior commissure–posterior commissure line, with increments of 4 mm.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Functional connectivity of the corticolimbic regions depicted in Table 1. Six correlation matrices are displayed for each LV: (1) interregional correlations for young subjects, 500 msec delay condition, (2) interregional correlations for young subjects, 4000 msec delay condition, (3) their corresponding simultaneous-discrimination control, (4) interregional correlations for old subjects, 500 msec delay condition, (5) interregional correlations for old subjects, 4000 msec delay condition, and (6) their corresponding simultaneous-discrimination controls. The column numbers on each symmetrical matrix correspond to the brain areas listed in Table 1. Correlation coefficients are represented as color gradations (red = positive, andblue = negative). The correlation coefficients of RHIPP with the rest of the brain areas are shown on the first column on the left. The other columns depict the correlation coefficients for the remaining voxels of the table.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Functional models for young and old subjects obtained from regions identified by LV1 and LV2 based on the 500 msec delay condition. The sign and magnitude of the path coefficients are represented in the graphs by the type of arrow (dashed arrows, inhibitory influences; solid arrows,excitatory influences) and its thickness, respectively. Paths in which the coefficients were close to zero are depicted as dotted arrows. The anatomical location of some brain areas is distorted to maintain figure clarity.
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