Individual Differences in Cognitive Function in Older Adults Predicted by Neuronal Selectivity at Corresponding Brain Regions

“…Some neuroimaging studies indicate that older adults show reduced brain activity compared to young adults when performing the same cognitive tasks (Logan et al, 2002;Grady et al, 2006;Dennis and Cabeza, 2008;Campbell et al, 2012;Grady, 2012;Podell et al, 2012). On the other hand, increased brain activity in older adults has also been observed in numerous neuroimaging studies (Cabeza et al, 2004;Gutchess et al, 2005;Greenwood, 2007;Cabeza and Dennis, 2012;Grady, 2012;Jiang et al, 2017;Koen and Rugg, 2019;Yao and Hsieh, 2022). Moreover, even the same brain regions can show increased or decreased activity in older adults, depending on the cognitive domain involved, the difficulty of the task during which the activity was measured, and the accuracy of the task performance (Mattay et al, 2006;Schneider-Garces et al, 2010;Spreng et al, 2010;Grady, 2012;Zajac-Lamparska, 2020;McDonough et al, 2022).…”

“…Although the effects of hand movement feedback were evident in this population, whether similar effects would be observed in older adults remains unclear. Moreover, individual differences are greater in older adults (Morse, 1993 ; Jiang et al, 2017 ). Thus, whether similar effects can be obtained must be tested.…”

“…For instance, previous studies suggested decreases in neural recruitment and connectivity between hippocampal-prefrontal regions (a network supported by the fornix) to relate to deficits in the recognition of visual objects (e.g., places and faces) in older age (Dennis et al, 2008;Grady et al, 1995) positive association between neural selectivity within the hippocampal formation and performance in an episodic memory task in a group of healthy older adults. As a result, the authors argued that age-associated decreases in neural selectivity might better reflect decline in cognitive function rather than compensation (Jiang et al, 2017, see also Park et al, 2010). Other important recent studies support the hypothesis that aging leads to decreased neural selectivity within place selective regions (e.g., in the PPA a region analogous to the hippocampus) and that such decreases in neural selectivity impact on cognitive performance (e.g., on reduced memory recognition for scenes), though these latter effects were found to be independent of age (Koen et al, 2019;Koen & Rugg, 2019;Srokova et al, 2020).…”

“…More recently, Jiang et al. (2017) reported a direct positive association between neural selectivity within the hippocampal formation and performance in an episodic memory task in a group of healthy older adults. As a result, the authors argued that age‐associated decreases in neural selectivity might better reflect decline in cognitive function rather than compensation (Jiang et al., 2017, see also Park et al., 2010).…”