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Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 5, pages 87–96 (2004)Cite this article

Key Points

  • A number of physical and mental changes accompany the developmental process of ageing; some of the most prominent of these involve changes in memory function. This article reviews the main behavioural findings in cognitive ageing research, and the structural and functional brain basis of the memory changes that occur with age.

  • Cross-sectional behavioural research has found robust declines across the adult lifespan in the ability to form new episodic memories, to process information quickly and to invoke executive processes, although longitudinal studies indicate that these declines might occur primarily after the age of 60. Semantic memory and short-term memory show remarkable preservation across most of the adult lifespan, with declines occurring only very late in life. By contrast, autobiographical memory, emotional memory and implicit memory are relatively unaffected by ageing.

  • Structural changes in both grey and white matter map onto these behavioural changes in memory. The largest volumetric declines occur in the prefrontal cortex, which subserves strategic episodic encoding and executive processes. The loss of anterior white matter integrity and of dopamine receptors in the striatum and prefrontal cortex accompany these volumetric declines, further providing mechanisms for the disruption of circuits that underlie memory function.

  • Hippocampal volume declines are less apparent during normal ageing, although declines in functional activations of the hippocampus and surrounding cortex have been observed in healthy older adults. By contrast, pathological processes, such as those that accompany Alzheimer's disease, severely affect hippocampal regions. In particular, entorhinal cortex, which serves as an important relay between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, is disproportionately affected by pathology.

  • The differential pattern of age-related changes in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus indicates a two-component model of cognitive ageing, with normal ageing primarily affecting prefrontal areas, and pathological ageing affecting medial temporal regions.

  • There is, however, wide variability among individuals in the extent, rate and pattern of age-related changes that are exhibited at both neural and behavioural levels. Some older adults have relatively intact memory function and also show patterns of functional activity in the prefrontal cortex that are often interpreted as being compensatory. Through investigation of differences among those older adults that are most resistant to and affected by ageing, researchers hope to determine how normal ageing affects cognition and how these effects might be mitigated.

Abstract

As we grow older, we may grow wiser, but we can also experience memory loss and cognitive slowing that can interfere with our daily routines. The cognitive neuroscience of human ageing, which relies largely on neuroimaging techniques, relates these cognitive changes to their neural substrates, including structural and functional changes in the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal lobe regions and white matter tracts. Much remains unknown about how normal ageing affects the neural basis of cognition, but recent research on individual differences in the trajectory of ageing effects is helping to distinguish normal from pathological origins of age-related cognitive changes.

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Figure 1: Cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of age-related change in cognition.
Figure 2: Cross-sectional estimates of age-related volumetric change in lateral prefrontal cortex, visual cortex and hippocampus measured with magnetic resonance imaging.
Figure 3: Diffusion tensor images of anisotropy of white matter in young and normal elderly subjects.
Figure 4: Functional magnetic resonance imaging activations for subsequently remembered words.
Figure 5: Neural activations in prefrontal cortex during a memory encoding task.

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Acknowledgements

T.H. is supported by an NRSA fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. This review was supported by grants from the National Institute on Ageing to J.D.E.G. The authors thank A. Wagner, A. Rosen, D. Bergerbest and K. Goosens for comments on earlier drafts.

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  1. Psychology Department, Stanford University, 434 Jordan Hall, Building 420, Stanford, 94305-2130, California, USA

    Trey Hedden & John D. E. Gabrieli

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Correspondence to Trey Hedden.

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DATABASES

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

ageing and the brain

Gabrieli Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory

Glossary

EXECUTIVE PROCESSES

General purpose cognitive mechanisms for goal-oriented organization and manipulation of information stored in working memory, and for switching among several tasks and sources of information.

FRONTOSTRIATAL SYSTEM

The frontal lobes and the basal ganglia (striatum and other related structures) are powerfully interconnected by several anatomically segregated loops from the frontal cortex to the striatum through the thalamus and back to the frontal cortex. So, many motor, cognitive and emotional actions are mediated by interactions among the components of this frontostriatal system.

WISCONSIN CARD SORTING TASK

A test that is used to measure behavioural flexibility in which subjects receive cards with different symbols and are asked to sort them by a certain feature (such as their colour). After the rule is learned, the subjects, without warning, are required to 'shift set' and sort them by a different feature (such as the shape of the symbols). People with prefrontal cortex lesions show impaired performance on this task and 'perseverate' — they carry on sorting the cards by a particular feature despite being told that it is incorrect.

FLUID INTELLIGENCE

The ability to reason rapidly about new problems, as contrasted with crystallized intelligence, which involves the use of previously acquired semantic or procedural knowledge.

HAEMODYNAMIC RESPONSE FUNCTION

The time course of changes in blood flow, volume and oxygenation level that occur in the brain in response to neural activity.

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Hedden, T., Gabrieli, J. Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience. Nat Rev Neurosci 5, 87–96 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1323

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