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Moderating effects of cortical thickness, volume, and memory performance on age differences in neural reinstatement of scene-related information

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Joshua Olivier1 (joshua.olivier@utdallas.edu), Sabina Srokova2, Michael Rugg1; 1University of Texas at Dallas, 2University of Arizona

The strength of neural reinstatement, a correlate of episodic memory, has been reported to reflect the amount and quality of retrieved mnemonic content and vary with age, with weaker effects in older compared to young adults, especially for scene memoranda. The mechanisms underlying age differences in reinstatement are unclear. Given evidence that age-related declines in cortical thickness and volume are a contributing factor to age-related cognitive decline, we combined fMRI data acquired in two previous studies of healthy young and older adult samples to examine relationships between age, cortical thickness, cortical volume, and reinstatement of scene-related information in two cortical regions implicated in scene processing: the parahippocampal place area (PPA) and medial place area (MPA). A ‘reinstatement index’ was estimated from the fMRI data collected at retrieval during a source memory task involving words paired with scene images. A series of multiple regression analyses examined the effects of the variables of interest on reinstatement. We found robust age differences in reinstatement, cortical thickness, and cortical volume. The regression models indicated that cortical volume was the sole significant predictor of reinstatement in both the PPA and MPA. Additionally, reinstatement strength in the PPA was a significant predictor of memory performance independently of age and cortical volume. The findings suggest that age differences in reinstatement can be fully explained by age differences in cortical volume, and that memory performance and age differences in volume account for unique components of variance in reinstatement strength.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging

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March 29–April 1  |  2025

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