Age-Specific Activation Patterns and Inter-Subject Similarity During Verbal Working Memory Maintenance and Cognitive Reserve

Habeck, Christian; Gazes, Yunglin; Stern, Yaakov · 2022 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.852995

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Summary

This study investigates the neural mechanisms of Cognitive Reserve (CR) during verbal working memory maintenance, addressing a gap in literature where CR is often measured via proxies rather than isolated neural mechanisms. Guided by the NIH-funded Reserve and Resilience collaboratory definition, the authors sought to identify multivariate activation patterns that explain cognitive performance beyond brain structural changes. The research specifically examined age-specific activation patterns and inter-subject similarity in young (20–30 years) and older (55–70 years) adults. The study utilized functional MRI (fMRI) data from 181 healthy participants performing a verbal Sternberg working memory task with varying memory loads (one, three, or six letters). Participants underwent neuropsychological assessments covering vocabulary, episodic memory, perceptual speed, and fluid reasoning, as well as structural MRI scans to measure cortical thickness. The researchers employed Ordinal Trend Canonical Variates Analysis (OrT-CVA) to derive group-level activation patterns during the maintenance phase that increased with memory load. They analyzed the relationship between pattern utilization and task performance, as well as the inter-subject spatial similarity of individual activation maps in older adults relative to performance, education, and cortical thickness. Results identified reliable load-related activation patterns in both age groups. In the younger group, the pattern increased with load for all but one participant; in the older group, it increased for all participants. While the patterns shared broad topographic similarities, their relationships with performance differed markedly. In younger adults, higher pattern utilization correlated negatively with task accuracy and fluid reasoning, suggesting greater efficiency. Conversely, in older adults, higher pattern utilization correlated positively with task accuracy and perceptual speed, suggesting a capacity-based mechanism. Additionally, older adults showed distinct involvement of the posterior cingulate and bilateral precuneus. Crucially, higher inter-subject similarity of activation patterns in older adults was associated with better task accuracy and neuropsychological function, indicating that conforming to a group-specific neural template supports cognitive performance. The findings provide evidence for age-specific neural implementations of Cognitive Reserve. The study demonstrates that working memory activation patterns can serve as a mechanism for CR, operating through efficiency in younger adults and capacity in older adults. The association between inter-subject similarity and performance in older adults suggests that robust, consistent neural strategies contribute to cognitive resilience. This work advances the field by isolating neural mechanisms of CR beyond structural brain health, offering a framework for understanding how neural activation patterns support cognition across the lifespan.

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• cognitive capacity variation