image: In younger adults, hippocampal activity decreases and acitivty in other navigational areas increases. The pattern is not seen in older adults. view more
Credit: Diersch et al., JNeurosci 2021
Too much activity in the hippocampus may cause navigation impairments seen in aging adults, according to new research published in JNeurosci.
Spatial navigation is one of the cognitive abilities that declines sharply in old age. Older adults often have difficulty navigating new environments and will choose to stick with familiar ones. Plus, key regions in the brain's navigation circuit are some of the first affected by Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, Diersch et al. examined the neural mechanism behind this decline in spatial learning.
In the study, younger and older adults (without known cognitive impairments) learned the layout of a town through virtual reality software. After touring the town, participants estimated the location of different landmarks while their brain activity was measured with fMRI. Most older adults did not perform as well as the younger adults and took longer to learn the layout of the town. As the younger adults learned and their performance improved, activity in the hippocampus decreased while activity in other navigation areas increased. This pattern was not seen in older adults. A failure to inhibit hippocampal activity could make brain signals too noisy, hindering spatial navigation performance. Reducing hippocampal activity could become a treatment option for improving memory performance in aging adults.
###
Paper title: Increased Hippocampal Excitability and Altered Learning Dynamics Mediate Cognitive Mapping Deficits in Human Aging
About JNeurosci
JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.