Neural Signatures of Semantic and Phonemic Fluency in Young and Old Adults

As we age, our ability to select and to produce words changes, yet we know little about the underlying neural substrate of word-finding difficulties in old adults. This study was designed to elucidate changes in specific frontally mediated retrieval processes involved in word-finding difficulties as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cognitive neuroscience 2009-10, Vol.21 (10), p.2007-2018
Main Authors: Meinzer, Marcus, Flaisch, Tobias, Wilser, Lotte, Eulitz, Carsten, Rockstroh, Brigitte, Conway, Tim, Gonzalez-Rothi, Leslie, Crosson, Bruce
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Adult
Age Differences
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - physiology
Brain
Brain - blood supply
Brain - physiology
Brain Hemisphere Functions
Brain Mapping
Cognitive Processes
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Information processing
Integrity
Language Fluency
Language Processing
Language Tests
Lateral Dominance
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Neurosciences
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Older Adults
Older people
Oxygen - blood
Phonemics
Phonetics
Psychometrics
Recall
Semantics
Statistics as Topic
Task Analysis
Vocabulary
Young Adult
Young Adults
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Summary:As we age, our ability to select and to produce words changes, yet we know little about the underlying neural substrate of word-finding difficulties in old adults. This study was designed to elucidate changes in specific frontally mediated retrieval processes involved in word-finding difficulties associated with advanced age. We implemented two overt verbal (semantic and phonemic) fluency tasks during fMRI and compared brain activity patterns of old and young adults. Performance during the phonemic task was comparable for both age groups and mirrored by strongly left-lateralized (frontal) activity patterns. On the other hand, a significant drop of performance during the semantic task in the older group was accompanied by additional right (inferior and middle) frontal activity, which was negatively correlated with performance. Moreover, the younger group recruited different subportions of the left inferior frontal gyrus for both fluency tasks, whereas the older participants failed to show this distinction. Thus, functional integrity and efficient recruitment of left frontal language areas seems to be critical for successful word retrieval in old age.
ISSN:0898-929X
1530-8898
DOI:10.1162/jocn.2009.21219