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Structural and functional substrates of associative memory load in aging

Award Number: F31AG071189
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/19/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2022

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Structural and functional substrates of associative memory load in aging - PROJECT SUMMARY Healthy older adults and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias show the most severe memory deficits for associative memory (AM), in which multiple elements must be remembered as one cohesive event (e.g., items on a grocery list). Neuroimaging research has separately related age-related declines in AM to increased neural activity in the hippocampus and lower integrity of white matter tracts directly emanating from the hippocampus (e.g., fornix). However, very few aging studies have assessed interactions between these functional and structural neural substrates and none have done so in relation to AM. In addition, because most prior AM research has used paradigms that involve remembering at most only pairs of stimuli, the effect of aging on more demanding associations remains unknown. Neurocognitive aging theories predict that older adults cannot recruit sufficient neural resources under more demanding cognitive loads, leading to lower neural activity and poorer cognitive performance than younger adults. Whereas this theory has mainly been tested with working memory paradigms and in relation to neural activity, it follows that a similar mechanism may underlie effects of AM load, and that the behavioral and neural responses may be mediated by brain structure. To address these limitations, we propose to characterize age differences in AM and the functional and structural neural substrates of AM as a function of Associative Load. Forty younger and 40 older healthy adults will perform an AM task with word pairs (low load) and triplets (high load) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquisition followed by a multicompartment diffusion imaging (MDI) sequence. We will assess age group differences in hippocampal activity during low and high load conditions using fMRI (Specific Aim 1) and in fornix integrity using MDI (Specific Aim 2), and how these neural substrates individually relate to AM performance. To test our novel hypothesis that the neural response to AM load is constrained by white matter structural integrity, we further propose to explore the moderating effects of age group and AM load on the direct relationship between hippocampal activity and fornix integrity (Specific Aim 3). In addition to advancing our understanding of AM deficits in healthy aging and the contribution of the fornix and hippocampus to memory performance, this proposal will support the applicant’s training aims of learning additional theoretical (e.g., cognitive neuroscience of aging), statistical (e.g., univariate and multivariate approaches), and methodological (e.g., advanced diffusion imaging) skills. Ultimately, this work will identify behavioral and neural markers of memory declines in healthy aging, thereby informing future work using these markers to detect older adults at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. By focusing on complex structure-function interactions, this work will also inform the field as it moves toward large-scale, multimodal imaging datasets.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = -$12,252 )
2023	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	200 UNIVERSTY OFC BUILDING	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	000	2	5/15/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$12,252
														Subtotal = -$12,252

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $18,047 )
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	900 UNIVERSITY AVE	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	001	2	5/3/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$22,597
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	900 UNIVERSITY AVE	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	000	2	2/3/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$40,644
														Subtotal = $18,047

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $40,240 )
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	200 UNIVERSTY OFFICE BLDG	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	002	1	3/10/2021	NEW	$516
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	200 UNIVERSTY OFFICE BLDG	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	000	1	1/11/2021	NEW	$39,724
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE	200 UNIVERSTY OFFICE BLDG	RIVERSIDE	CA	92521	RIVERSIDE	USA	Aging Research	001	1	1/11/2021	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $40,240

Grand Total All Awards = $46,035

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Structural and functional substrates of associative memory load in aging

Award Number: F31AG071189

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/19/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2022

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