Cortical thickness in the right inferior frontal gyrus mediates age-related performance differences on an item-method directed forgetting task

NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING

卷:106

Article

Eich, Teal S.^1,2,3  Lao, Patrick^2,3  Anderson, Michael C.^4,5 

[1] Univ Southern Calif, Leonard Davis Sch Gerontol, 5715 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA

[2] Columbia Univ, Dept Neurol, Los Angeles, CA USA

[3] Columbia Univ, Taub Inst, Los Angeles, CA USA

[4] Univ Cambridge, Behav & Clin Neurosci Inst, Cambridge, England

[5] Univ Cambridge, MRC Cognit & Brain Sci Unit, Cambridge, England

关键词: Memory;    Suppression;    Inhibition;    Aging;    Cortical Thinning;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.06.001

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Evidence suggests that older adults have difficulty relative to younger adults in forgetting irrelevant infor-mation. Here we sought to understand the physical basis of this deficit by investigating the relationship between cortical thickness and intentional forgetting, using an item-method directed forgetting task. We tested younger ( n = 44) and older ( n = 54) adults' memories for words that they were instructed to either remember or to forget, and then extracted cortical thickness values from brain regions previously shown, using functional neuroimaging, to be associated with memory suppression, including the right in-ferior frontal gyrus, the right postcentral gyrus and the left superior/middle frontal gyrus. Results from a parallel mediation model indicated that variations in cortical thickness in the right inferior frontal gyrus, but not the right postcentral gyrus or left superior/middle frontal gyrus, partially explained age-related differences in directed forgetting: older adults with thinner cortices in this area showed worse forgetting ability. This is the first study to explore how neuromorphological differences affect the ability to inten-tionally suppress items in memory. The results suggest that age-related differences in directed forgetting may be partly driven by cortical thickness in a brain structure known to be functionally involved in di-rected forgetting, and inhibitory control more broadly, supporting a contribution of deficient inhibition to this phenomenon. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

【 授权许可】

Free