Elena Solesio - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Elena Solesio

Research paper thumbnail of Age-Related Effects in Working Memory Recognition Modulated by Retroactive Interference

The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2012

One of the main causes for age-related declines in working memory is a higher vulnerability to re... more One of the main causes for age-related declines in working memory is a higher vulnerability to retroactive interference due to a reduced ability to suppress irrelevant information. However, the underlying neural correlates remain to be established. Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate differential neural patterns in young and older adults performing an interference-based memory task with two experimental conditions, interrupting and distracting, during successful recognition. Behaviorally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impaired accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interrupters. Magnetoencephalography revealed the presence of differential age-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in temporo-occipital and superior parietal regions were higher in young adults compared with older adults for the interrupting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to retroactive interference may be associated with neural under-recruitments in a high-interference task.

Research paper thumbnail of Memory and normal aging: Changes in brain activity in an interference task tested by magnetoencephalography

Research paper thumbnail of Towards the Understanding of Healthy and Pathological Aging Through MEG

Research paper thumbnail of Early prefrontal activation as a mechanism to prevent forgetting in the context of interference

The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 2013

To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding proces... more To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding process in older people. Moreover, two different levels of interference (distraction and interruption) were presented during the maintenance period to examine how they modulate brain activity profiles. Design: A delayed match-to-sample task with two experimental conditions: distraction and interruption. Participants: Twenty-seven young adults from Complutense University of Madrid and 20 healthy older adults from Complutense Elderly University of Madrid. Measurements: Magnetoencephalography scans were recorded during the execution of a working memory interference task. Brain activity sources from younger and older adults during the encoding stage were compared in each condition using minimum norm estimation analyses. Results: The elderly showed enhancement of prefrontal activity during early latencies of the encoding process in both conditions. In the distraction condition, enhanced activity was located in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions, whereas in the interruption condition, enhanced activity was observed in the right ventral prefrontal areas and anterior cingulate cortex. Conclusion: Increased recruitment of prefrontal regions in the elderly might be related to the processing depth of information, encoding of new information and semantic associations that are successfully recalled, and with interference resolution and preparatory control when the level of interference becomes higher. These prefrontal modulations during early latencies might reflect a higher top-down control of the encoding process in normal aging to prevent forgetting. (Am J

Research paper thumbnail of Retroactive interference in normal aging: A magnetoencephalography study

Neuroscience Letters, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Brain Activity Patterns in Stable and Progressive Mild Cognitive Impairment During Working Memory as Evidenced by Magnetoencephalography

Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2011

It has been reported that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, when compared with controls, ... more It has been reported that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, when compared with controls, show increased activity in different brain regions within the ventral pathway during memory tasks. A key question is whether this profile of increased activity could be useful to predict which patients will develop dementia. Herein, we present profiles of brain magnetic activity during a memory task recorded with magnetoencephalography from MCI patients (N = 10), Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N = 10), and healthy volunteers (N = 17). After 2½ years of follow-up, five of the MCI patients developed AD. Patients who progressed to AD (PMCI) showed higher activity than those who remained stable (SMCI), AD patients and controls. This increased activity in PMCI patients involves regions within the ventral and dorsal pathways. In contrast, SMCI patients showed higher activation than controls only along the ventral pathway. This increase in both the ventral and dorsal pathways in PMCI patients may reflect a compensatory mechanism for the loss in efficiency in memory networks, which would be absent in AD patients as they showed lower activity levels than the rest of the groups.

Research paper thumbnail of 59. Magnetoencephalography in the study of Alzheimer disease

Clinical Neurophysiology, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Age effects on retroactive interference during working memory maintenance

Biological Psychology, 2011

The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine brain magnetic patterns in young a... more The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine brain magnetic patterns in young and older adults who perform an interference-based working memory (WM) task with two experimental conditions; interrupting and distracting. Behaviourally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impair WM accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interruptors. MEG results revealed the presence of differential age-related and interference-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in posterior-frontal regions were increased in young compared to older adults characterising each condition. Additionally, young adults exhibited greater posterior-frontal activations for the interrupting compared to the distracting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to interference are associated with under-recruitments in posterior-frontal regions. On the other hand, the absence of differential interference-related neural recruitments reflects that both types of interference affect WM equally in the elderly.

Research paper thumbnail of Early dysfunction of functional connectivity in healthy elderly with subjective memory complaints

AGE, 2012

Objective: Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are frequently reported by elderly people with or ... more Objective: Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are frequently reported by elderly people with or without objective cognitive impairment (OMI) as assessed by neuropsychological tests. We investigate whether SMCs are associated with altered brain biomagnetic patterns even in the absence of OMI. Methods: We report spatio-temporal patterns of brain magnetic activity recorded with magnetoencephalography during a memory task in 51 elderly participants divided into the following groups: patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with SMC and OMI, individuals with SMC but not OMI, and healthy controls without neither SMC nor OMI. Exclusion criteria for all three groups included a diagnosis of depression or any other psychiatric condition. Results: No statistically significant differences were found between MCI patients and participants with SMC. However, the SMC showed higher activation, between 200 and 900 ms after stimulus onset, than the control group in posterior ventral regions and in the dorsal pathway. MCI patients showed higher activation than the control group in the posterior part of the ventral pathway. Conclusions: These findings suggest that similar physiological mechanisms may underlie SMC and MCI, which could be two stages in a cognitive continuum. Significance: MEG provide different neurophysiological profiles between SMC and control subjects.

Research paper thumbnail of Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioral decline

Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in health... more Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in healthy aging. However, the relationship between aging, bimanual performance and grey matter loss remains unclear, particularly across the whole adult life span. Therefore, participants (N=93, range 20-80 years) performed a complex Bimanual Tracking Task and structural brain images were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Analyses revealed that age correlated negatively with task performance. Voxel-based-morphometry analysis revealed that age was associated with grey matter declines in task relevant cortical areas and that grey matter in these areas was negatively associated with task performance. However, no evidence for a mediating effect of grey matter in age-related bimanual performance decline was observed. We propose a new hypothesis that functional compensation may account for the observed absence of mediation, which is in line with the observed pattern of increased inter-individual variance in performance with age.

Research paper thumbnail of Age-Related Effects in Working Memory Recognition Modulated by Retroactive Interference

The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2012

One of the main causes for age-related declines in working memory is a higher vulnerability to re... more One of the main causes for age-related declines in working memory is a higher vulnerability to retroactive interference due to a reduced ability to suppress irrelevant information. However, the underlying neural correlates remain to be established. Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate differential neural patterns in young and older adults performing an interference-based memory task with two experimental conditions, interrupting and distracting, during successful recognition. Behaviorally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impaired accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interrupters. Magnetoencephalography revealed the presence of differential age-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in temporo-occipital and superior parietal regions were higher in young adults compared with older adults for the interrupting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to retroactive interference may be associated with neural under-recruitments in a high-interference task.

Research paper thumbnail of Memory and normal aging: Changes in brain activity in an interference task tested by magnetoencephalography

Research paper thumbnail of Towards the Understanding of Healthy and Pathological Aging Through MEG

Research paper thumbnail of Early prefrontal activation as a mechanism to prevent forgetting in the context of interference

The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 2013

To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding proces... more To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding process in older people. Moreover, two different levels of interference (distraction and interruption) were presented during the maintenance period to examine how they modulate brain activity profiles. Design: A delayed match-to-sample task with two experimental conditions: distraction and interruption. Participants: Twenty-seven young adults from Complutense University of Madrid and 20 healthy older adults from Complutense Elderly University of Madrid. Measurements: Magnetoencephalography scans were recorded during the execution of a working memory interference task. Brain activity sources from younger and older adults during the encoding stage were compared in each condition using minimum norm estimation analyses. Results: The elderly showed enhancement of prefrontal activity during early latencies of the encoding process in both conditions. In the distraction condition, enhanced activity was located in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions, whereas in the interruption condition, enhanced activity was observed in the right ventral prefrontal areas and anterior cingulate cortex. Conclusion: Increased recruitment of prefrontal regions in the elderly might be related to the processing depth of information, encoding of new information and semantic associations that are successfully recalled, and with interference resolution and preparatory control when the level of interference becomes higher. These prefrontal modulations during early latencies might reflect a higher top-down control of the encoding process in normal aging to prevent forgetting. (Am J

Research paper thumbnail of Retroactive interference in normal aging: A magnetoencephalography study

Neuroscience Letters, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Brain Activity Patterns in Stable and Progressive Mild Cognitive Impairment During Working Memory as Evidenced by Magnetoencephalography

Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2011

It has been reported that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, when compared with controls, ... more It has been reported that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, when compared with controls, show increased activity in different brain regions within the ventral pathway during memory tasks. A key question is whether this profile of increased activity could be useful to predict which patients will develop dementia. Herein, we present profiles of brain magnetic activity during a memory task recorded with magnetoencephalography from MCI patients (N = 10), Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N = 10), and healthy volunteers (N = 17). After 2½ years of follow-up, five of the MCI patients developed AD. Patients who progressed to AD (PMCI) showed higher activity than those who remained stable (SMCI), AD patients and controls. This increased activity in PMCI patients involves regions within the ventral and dorsal pathways. In contrast, SMCI patients showed higher activation than controls only along the ventral pathway. This increase in both the ventral and dorsal pathways in PMCI patients may reflect a compensatory mechanism for the loss in efficiency in memory networks, which would be absent in AD patients as they showed lower activity levels than the rest of the groups.

Research paper thumbnail of 59. Magnetoencephalography in the study of Alzheimer disease

Clinical Neurophysiology, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Age effects on retroactive interference during working memory maintenance

Biological Psychology, 2011

The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine brain magnetic patterns in young a... more The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine brain magnetic patterns in young and older adults who perform an interference-based working memory (WM) task with two experimental conditions; interrupting and distracting. Behaviourally, both types of retroactive interference significantly impair WM accuracy at recognition more in older adults than in young adults with the latter exhibiting greater disruptions by interruptors. MEG results revealed the presence of differential age-related and interference-related neural patterns. Specifically, time-modulated activations in posterior-frontal regions were increased in young compared to older adults characterising each condition. Additionally, young adults exhibited greater posterior-frontal activations for the interrupting compared to the distracting condition. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory mechanisms that increase vulnerability to interference are associated with under-recruitments in posterior-frontal regions. On the other hand, the absence of differential interference-related neural recruitments reflects that both types of interference affect WM equally in the elderly.

Research paper thumbnail of Early dysfunction of functional connectivity in healthy elderly with subjective memory complaints

AGE, 2012

Objective: Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are frequently reported by elderly people with or ... more Objective: Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are frequently reported by elderly people with or without objective cognitive impairment (OMI) as assessed by neuropsychological tests. We investigate whether SMCs are associated with altered brain biomagnetic patterns even in the absence of OMI. Methods: We report spatio-temporal patterns of brain magnetic activity recorded with magnetoencephalography during a memory task in 51 elderly participants divided into the following groups: patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with SMC and OMI, individuals with SMC but not OMI, and healthy controls without neither SMC nor OMI. Exclusion criteria for all three groups included a diagnosis of depression or any other psychiatric condition. Results: No statistically significant differences were found between MCI patients and participants with SMC. However, the SMC showed higher activation, between 200 and 900 ms after stimulus onset, than the control group in posterior ventral regions and in the dorsal pathway. MCI patients showed higher activation than the control group in the posterior part of the ventral pathway. Conclusions: These findings suggest that similar physiological mechanisms may underlie SMC and MCI, which could be two stages in a cognitive continuum. Significance: MEG provide different neurophysiological profiles between SMC and control subjects.

Research paper thumbnail of Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioral decline

Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in health... more Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in healthy aging. However, the relationship between aging, bimanual performance and grey matter loss remains unclear, particularly across the whole adult life span. Therefore, participants (N=93, range 20-80 years) performed a complex Bimanual Tracking Task and structural brain images were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Analyses revealed that age correlated negatively with task performance. Voxel-based-morphometry analysis revealed that age was associated with grey matter declines in task relevant cortical areas and that grey matter in these areas was negatively associated with task performance. However, no evidence for a mediating effect of grey matter in age-related bimanual performance decline was observed. We propose a new hypothesis that functional compensation may account for the observed absence of mediation, which is in line with the observed pattern of increased inter-individual variance in performance with age.