Age-differences in verbal recognition memory revealed by ERP.

摘要

Seventy-four participants (aged 20-82 years) went through a continuous performance recognition memory task with multiple repetitions of words and non-words while ERPs were recorded from the scalp. The oldew ERP effect (the difference in activation to stimuli correctly recognized as old and stimuli correctly recognized as new) for words but not non-words declined with increasing age in a linear pattern, but the relationship between the oldew effect and age varied throughout the ERP time window. Differences in topography between age groups were manifested in a frontal shift in activation for older age groups. Further, the data point to differences in semantic versus non-semantic processing across the adult life span, and it is concluded that specific cognitive memory processes are differentially involved at different ages.