Study finds weaker relationship between older adults and their brain activity

Lying and forgetfulness of age-related memory are a common complaint for many older people, but what is still not understood is what is causing these changes.

Recent research published by scientists at the Baycrest Rotman Research Institute (RRI) brings us one step closer to discovering the answer, which may help to distinguish earlier signs of dementia.

The study, published in the journal neuropsychology, found that in older adults, the relationship between what their eyes see and their brain activity is much lower.

"Eye movements are important to gather information from around the world and the brain's memory center – the hippocampus – is important to link that data to create a memory of what our eyes see," says the Dr. Jennifer Ryan, senior scientist of RRI. James Leeds Reva Chair in Leadership in Neuroscience and Research. "But we found that older adults do not build up memory the same way as younger ones, something falls apart somewhere on the way to collecting visual information through the eyes." and storing what is seen in a memory. "

Previously, Baycrest researchers had identified a link between what we see and how we remember. When the eyes see and process more details of an object in front of them, the brain activity is more important in the center of the brain memory. When the object is seen several times, the activity of the seahorse gradually decreases, indicating that what we see is no longer a new information. But that does not happen in older adults.

In the latest study, researchers found that older people exhibited more eye movements, but that there was no corresponding trend in brain activity.

"These results demonstrate that the eyes and brain are gathering information from their environment, but the appearance of memory creation that seems to be a link seems to be broken," added Dr. Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. 39, University of Toronto. "When the memory is not being created, the object remains unknown on the part of a person, even when she has seen it several times."

The study was conducted among 21 older adults (aged 64 to 79) and 20 younger adults (aged 19 to 28). The research participants briefly showed faces on a screen where some of the images were displayed multiple times. The researchers badyzed the eye movements and brain scans of individuals while they examined and badyzed the images.

In the next steps, researchers will continue to explore triggers for eye movements and related activities in the brain, which could be used to help predict earlier cognitive decline of Alzheimer's disease or Alzheimer's disease. Other related dementias.

This study was conducted with the support of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canada Research Chairs Program.

With additional funding, scientists could continue research that could inform the development of an ocular cognitive badessment that may one day help physicians badess cognitive decline in clients.