Non-pathological decline in memory is a pervasive process during aging. One common age-associated condition that is linked to cognitive dysfunction is inflammation. In particular, cellular signaling via the nuclear factor kappa B pathway (NFκB), which regulates inflammation, is up-regulated during the aging process but its precise role in learning and memory across the lifespan is not fully understood. The purpose of the experiments in this dissertation were to investigate the role of NFκB in age-associated cognitive decline and to determine factors that mediate cognitive decline during aging in conditions with up-regulated NFκB signaling. To achieve these aims, young, middle-aged and aged rats were tested on a hippocampus-dependent memory task and levels of NFκB were compared between age groups and individual differences in NFκB levels were correlated with memory. In young mice, inflammation was induced via dextran sulfate sodium, and levels of NFκB and memory were compared between groups and individual variation in NFκB was correlated with behavior. Lastly, using the Midlife Development in the United States data set, the psychosocial variables that predict cognitive decline with age were examined in relation to inflammatory status. The results from this dissertation provide insight into the co-variation of NFκB signaling and cognition across the lifespan and identify important personal and experiential factors that may alter this relationship. / 1 / Andrea F Jones

We examined how explicit instructions to encode visual context information accompanying visually-presented unrelated target words affected later recognition of the targets presented alone, in younger and older adults. In Experiments 1 and 3, neutral context scenes, and in Experiments 2 and 4, emotionally salient context scenes, were paired with target words during encoding. Experiments 1 and 2 data were collected using within subject design; in Experiments 3 and 4 we used a between subjects design. Across all four experiments, instructions to explicitly make a link (associate) between simultaneously presented context and target words always led to significantly better recognition memory in both younger and older adults compared to deep or shallow levels of processing (LoP) instructions for the context information. In all experiments the age-related deficit in overall memory remained. There was no consistent difference in the effect of a shallow versus deep processing of context in the first three experiments in young adults, although a standard LoP effect, with better memory performance following deep than shallow processing, was demonstrated with both age groups in Experiment 4. Results suggest that an instruction to explicitly link target words to context information will significantly and consistently improve memory recognition for targets. This was demonstrated in all four experiments, in both younger and older adults. Importantly, results suggest that memory in older adults can be improved with specific instructional manipulations during encoding.

We examined how explicit instructions to encode visual context information accompanying visually-presented unrelated target words affected later recognition of the targets presented alone, in younger and older adults. In Experiments 1 and 3, neutral context scenes, and in Experiments 2 and 4, emotionally salient context scenes, were paired with target words during encoding. Experiments 1 and 2 data were collected using within subject design; in Experiments 3 and 4 we used a between subjects design. Across all four experiments, instructions to explicitly make a link (associate) between simultaneously presented context and target words always led to significantly better recognition memory in both younger and older adults compared to deep or shallow levels of processing (LoP) instructions for the context information. In all experiments the age-related deficit in overall memory remained. There was no consistent difference in the effect of a shallow versus deep processing of context in the first three experiments in young adults, although a standard LoP effect, with better memory performance following deep than shallow processing, was demonstrated with both age groups in Experiment 4. Results suggest that an instruction to explicitly link target words to context information will significantly and consistently improve memory recognition for targets. This was demonstrated in all four experiments, in both younger and older adults. Importantly, results suggest that memory in older adults can be improved with specific instructional manipulations during encoding.

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The Aronson Cognitive Residual Evaluation Scale (ACRES), designed to assess residual cognitive functioning with potential loss due to age or CNS disorder, was examined with a male subject group. The five ACRES subtests were administered to 45 elderly males. Results were compared with a previously reported subject group of 48 elderly females. Measures of the subjects' levels of independent functioning and their performances on selected Wechsler Memory Scale Revised (WMS-R) subtests were related to ACRES scores. Intercorrelations among ACRES subtests suggest that more than one cognitive factor is assessed. WMS-R subtests showed moderately significant correlations with ACRES for verbal tasks and for nonverbal tasks. Findings were discussed within a framework of lateralization of CNS functions.

The Diploma thesis is concerned with the human episodic-like memory and its changes during the course of healthy ageing. Episodic memory represents a memory of specific events and their spatiotemporal relations, involving conscious retrieval and mental time travel. As a testable analogy in animals, a concept of episodic-like memory has been suggested and defined as a memory of spatiotemporal location of a certain event in the past ("what-where-when"). Firstly, we focused on a methodological comparison of standard psychological tests of episodic memory and a novel non-verbal computer-based Episodic-Like Memory Test (EMT) with several variants of varying difficulty, capable of discerning the memory for pictures, their sequence and position (Vlček et al., 2009). The second goal of our study was to demonstrate the applicability of the concept of episodic-like memory ("what- where-when") as a model in the testing of human episodic memory. Compared with other tests of episodic memory, EMT test does not depend on the verbalization of content. Contrasting the results obtained from EMT and other standard tests was, therefore, of interest. The results from the EMT test were compared across three age cohorts (N = 58; young, middle-aged, aged) of healthy volunteers. In the spatial domain of episodic-like...

Yes / Background: The face-name association technique (FNAT) is commonly used to investigate name recall in nonpathologic aging. This technique is appropriate for studying anomia, but the pure-list technique, in which participants see only names and do not need to form face-name associations, might be more appropriate for studying age-related name recall. Methods: Experiment 1 recruited 60 adults (30 younger and 30 older adults) to participate in the FNAT recognition task of 30 common and 30 uncommon names. In experiment 2, the same number and demographic of participants attempted to recall 30 common and 30 uncommon names. Both experiments utilized measurements of overall recall across 5 trials and a delayed recognition or recall trial. Measures of encoding (gained access) and consolidation (lost access) were also taken for the 5 initial trials in both experiments. Older participants received 50% extra study and recognition/recall time. Results: The FNAT experiment revealed an age-related episodic memory deficit for names. However, in cued recall, encoding, consolidation, retention/retrieval, and false alarm tests, older adults were significantly better than younger adults at recalling uncommon names, as opposed to common names. This lends support to the inhibition theory of name recall. Conversely, our second experiment revealed no age effect on any factors of name memory functioning, supporting node structure theory. Conclusions: The results of our experiments support previous findings that suggest an age-related deficit in name recall, but only in cases of anomia. Therefore, the FNAT methodology may be inappropriate for studying age-related name recall. It is possible that names are stored in the memory differently from nouns. We challenge the belief that older adults are significantly less able to recall names compared with other word types, which has implications for both memory self-efficacy questionnaires and research into eye-witness testimonies.