In young adults, the neural correlates of successful recollection vary with the specificity (or amount) of information retrieved. We examined whether the neural correlates of recollection are modulated in a similar fashion in older adults. We compared event-related potential (ERP) correlates of recollection in samples of healthy young and older adults (N = 20 per age group). At study, participants were cued to make one of two judgments about each of a series of words. Subsequently, participants completed a memory test for studied and unstudied words in which they first made a Remember/Know/New (RKN) judgment, followed by a source memory judgment when a word attracted a 'Remember' (R) response. In young adults, the 'left parietal effect' - a putative ERP correlate of successful recollection - was largest for test items endorsed as recollected (R judgment) and attracting a correct source judgment, intermediate for items endorsed as recollected but attracting an incorrect or uncertain source judgment, and, relative to correct rejections, absent for items endorsed as familiar only (K judgment). In marked contrast, the left parietal effect was not detectable in older adults. Rather, regardless of source accuracy, studied items attracting an R response elicited a sustained, centrally maximum negative-going deflection relative to both correct rejections and studied items where recollection failed (K judgment). A similar retrieval-related negativity has been described previously in older adults, but the present findings are among the few to link this effect specifically to recollection. Finally, relative to correct rejections, all classes of correctly recognized old items elicited an age-invariant, late-onsetting positive deflection that was maximal over the right frontal scalp. This finding, which replicates several prior results, suggests that post-retrieval monitoring operations were engaged to an equivalent extent in the two age groups. Together, the present results suggest that there are circumstances where young and older adults engage qualitatively distinct retrieval-related processes during successful recollection.

中文翻译：

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记忆特异性的神经相关性的年龄差异：一项与事件相关的潜力研究。


在年轻人中，成功回忆的神经关联因检索到的信息的特异性（或数量）而异。我们检查了老年人中回忆的神经相关性是否以类似的方式受到调节。我们比较了健康年轻人和老年人样本中的事件相关电位 (ERP) 与记忆的相关性（每个年龄组 N = 20）。在研究中，参与者被提示对一系列单词中的每一个做出两个判断之一。随后，参与者完成了对已研究和未研究的单词的记忆测试，其中他们首先做出记住/知道/新（RKN）判断，然后当单词引起“记住”（R）反应时进行源记忆判断。在年轻人中，“左顶叶效应”（一种假定的 ERP 与成功回忆相关的因素）对于被认可为回忆的测试项目（R 判断）并吸引正确的来源判断而言最大，对于被认可为回忆但吸引不正确或不确定的项目而言，“左顶叶效应”是中间的。来源判断，并且相对于正确拒绝，仅缺席被认可为熟悉的项目（K 判断）。与此形成鲜明对比的是，在老年人中检测不到左顶叶效应。相反，无论来源准确性如何，吸引 R 反应的研究项目都会引发持续的、集中最大的负向偏转，相对于正确拒绝和回忆失败的研究项目（K 判断）。以前在老年人中也曾描述过类似的与检索相关的消极情绪，但目前的研究结果是少数将这种效应与回忆联系起来的研究结果之一。最后，相对于正确的拒绝，所有类别的正确识别的旧物品都会引起年龄不变的、晚发的正偏转，该偏转在右额头皮上达到最大。 这一发现重复了之前的几项结果，表明检索后监测操作在两个年龄组中的参与程度相当。总之，目前的结果表明，在某些情况下，年轻人和老年人在成功的回忆过程中参与了性质不同的检索相关过程。