Old and young brains rely on different systems when it comes to storing memories

Washington, Dec 16 (ANI): When it comes to storing memories, especially those associated with negative emotions, older people use their brains differently than younger people, neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center have found.

The study, appearing online in the January issue of Psychological Science, is a novel look at how brain connections change with age.

Older adults, average age 70, and younger adults, average age 24, were shown a series of 30 photographs while their brains were imaged in a functional MRI (fMRI) machine.

Some of the photos were neutral in nature and others had strong negative content such as attacking snakes, mutilated bodies and violent acts.

While in the fMRI machine, the subjects looked at the photos and ranked them on a pleasantness scale. Then they completed an unexpected recall task following the fMRI scan to determine whether the brain activity that occurred while looking at the pictures could predict later memory.

The results were sorted according to the numbers of negative and neutral pictures that were remembered or missed by each group.

The scientists found that older adults have less connectivity between an area of the brain that generates emotions and a region involved in memory and learning. But they also found that the older adults have stronger connections with the frontal cortex, the higher thinking area of the brain that controls these lower-order parts of the brain.

Young adults used more of the brain regions typically involved in emotion and recalling memories.

"The younger adults were able to recall more of the negative photos," said Roberto Cabeza, Ph.D., senior author and Duke professor in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.

If the older adults are using more thinking than feeling, "that may be one reason why older adults showed a reduction in memory for pictures with a more negative emotional content," the expert added.

"It wasn't surprising that older people showed a reduction in memory for negative pictures, but it was surprising that the older subjects were using a different system to help them to better encode those pictures they could remember," said lead author Peggy St. Jacques, a graduate student in the Cabeza laboratory. (ANI)