Spatial discrimination deficits as a function of mnemonic interference in aged adults with and without memory impairment.

ABSTRACT: It is well established that aging is associated with declines in episodic memory. In recent years, an emphasis has emerged on the development of behavioral tasks and the identification of biomarkers that are predictive of cognitive decline in healthy as well as pathological aging. Here, we describe a memory task designed to assess the accuracy of discrimination ability for the locations of objects. Object locations were initially encoded incidentally, and appeared in a single space against a 5 × 7 grid. During retrieval, subjects viewed repeated object-location pairings, displacements of 1, 2, 3, or 4 grid spaces, and maximal corner-to-opposite-corner displacements. Subjects were tasked with judging objects in this second viewing as having retained their original location, or having moved.

SUBMITTER: Reagh ZM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3968903 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature