Brain Memory Retrieval Differ in Adults and Children

Neuroscientists from Wayne State University and of course the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are having a deeper look into the way in which brain mechanisms for memory retrieval vary between children and adults. While the memory techniques are identical in several ways, the scientists got to know that crucial features along with relevance to learning and education vary.

Based on lead author Noa Ofen, Ph.D., assistant professor in WSU's Institute of Gerontology and Department of Pediatrics, cognitive ability, which includes ability to understand and remember new important information, drastically changes between childhood and adulthood. This capability parallels along with dramatic changes that happen in the structure and function of one's brain over these periods.

In the survey, "The Development of Brain Systems Involved with Successful Memory Retrieval of Scenes," Ofen and her collaborative crew examined the creation of neural underpinnings of memory from childhood to actually young adulthood. The group of scientists exposed individuals to actually pictures of scenes and after that showed them the same clips combined along with new ones and asked them to be able to judge whether each picture was really presented earlier. Individuals made retrieval judgments as well as researchers collected photographs of their brains along with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Utilizing this method, the scientists were able to see just how the brain remembers. "Our results advice that cortical regions regarding strategic manage exhibit the best developmental changes for memory retrieval," said Ofen.

The scientists stated that older individuals utilized the cortical regions more often younger individuals when perfectly retrieving past experiences.

"We were really interested to see whether there may be changes in the connectivity of areas within the brain that help memory retrieval," Ofen added. "All of us found changes in interaction of memory-related region. Especially, the developmental change in linking between regions was really profound even without a developmental change within the recruitment of those regions, recommending that functional brain linking is a vital aspect of developmental changes in the whole brain."