Age Differences in the Frontal Lateralization of Verbal and….pdfVIP

Age Differences in the Frontal Lateralization of Verbal and Spatial Working Memory Revealed by PET Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, John Jonides, and Edward E. Smith University of Michigan Alan Hartley Scripps College Andrea Miller, Christina Marshuetz, and Robert A. Koeppe University of Michigan Abstract Age-related decline in working memory figures promi- adults, activation is predominantly left lateralized for verbal nently in theories of cognitive aging. However, the effects of working memory, and right lateralized for spatial working aging on the neural substrate of working memory are largely memory, whereas older adults show a global pattern of unknown. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to anterior bilateral activation for both types of memory. investigate verbal and spatial short-term storage (3 sec) in Analyses of frontal subregions indicate that several underlying older and younger adults. Previous investigations with patterns contribute to global bilaterality in older adults: most younger subjects performing these same tasks have revealed notably, bilateral activation in areas associated with rehearsal, asymmetries in the lateral organization of verbal and spatial and paradoxical laterality in dorsolateral prefrontal sites working memory. Using volume of interest (VOI) analyses (DLPFC; greater left activation for spatial and greater right that specifically compared activation at sites identified with activation for verbal). We consider several mechanisms that working memory to their homologous twin in the opposite could account for these age differences including the hemisphere, we show pronounced age differences in this possibility that bilateral activation reflects recruitment to organization, particularl