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Sketchpad Series

Using novelty and expectation violation to characterise the neural underpinnings of superior memory in superagers

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

Darya Frank^1,2 (darya.frank@manchester.ac.uk), Marta Garcia Huescar², Linda Zhang³, Bryan Strange²; ¹University of Manchester, ²Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, ³CIEN Foundation, Queen Sofia Foundation Alzheimer Center

Superagers are people aged 80 or older with episodic memory performance as good as people 30 years younger, sustained by increased grey matter density in the by medial temporal lobe (MTL). Novelty and expectation violation engage memory encoding processes, supported by MTL and midbrain structures. These regions also deteriorate during ageing, and may underlie resilience to age-related decline in superagers. We used an fMRI task combining novelty and expectation violation to examine functional neural markers that contribute to the preserved memory of superagers. Our sample included 21 superagers and 20 matched controls from the Vallecas Project cohort. Participants were first familiarised with object images and then performed a rule-learning task, associating a cue with a subsequent object (novel or familiarised). During encoding, participants saw expected (70%) and unexpected (30%) familiarised and novel objects, determined by a match or mismatch between the cue and the subsequent object (e.g. cue for novel preceding a familiar object). After the scan, a recognition test was performed. Superagers had overall better memory performance than controls, and unexpected objects were better recognised than expected ones in both groups. Initial fMRI analyses revealed superagers had increased midbrain activity during encoding of novel objects compared to controls. Furthermore, hippocampal encoding activity was increased in response to unexpected familiar objects in both groups. Future analyses will further explore these interactions and examine connectivity between the regions to inform future models of cognitive ageing trajectories and contribute to our understanding of the functional underpinnings of resistance to age-related cognitive decline.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging