Kevin P. Madore - US grants

Project Summary/Abstract Representation of task goals is a critical component of episodic memory retrieval, and yet little is known about the neural coding of mnemonic goals and their potential modulation by attentional preparedness in the context of remembering at the trial level in young adults or in older adults. This topic is particularly important to address in the context of aging because older adulthood is characterized by changes in control and attention that have the potential to affect neural coding of goals and attentional preparedness during retrieval. These components are underexplored in cognitive neuroscience research even though they are key predictors of age-related daily functioning and neurological decline. Motivated by theories of cognitive aging and extant data on shifts in control strategies, fluctuations in dynamic attention, and dedifferentiation of task states in frontoparietal brain networks at the trial level as a function of age, the proposed research program will leverage multivariate decoding analyses and concurrent task-based electroencephalography-functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) in two experiments using sensitive source memory tasks to address fundamental and as yet unresolved questions regarding age-related changes in goal representations, attentional preparedness, and brain computations and EEG oscillations that underlie these processes during memory retrieval. Each experiment will integrate within- and between-age analytics so that older adult data are not entirely dependent on young adult data. Aim 1 will delineate how hierarchical domain-general and domain-specific goal representations are computed in frontoparietal networks and relate to medial temporal lobe (MTL) mechanisms of remembering and behaviors (e.g., retrieval success in terms of hits vs. correct rejections) by implementing an experimental manipulation of mnemonic goal processing, and multivariate decoding analyses, in younger and older adults. This experiment will optimize the design and power of Aim 2, though the methods and findings of each aim can function separately. By indexing attentional preparedness via variations in EEG pre- trial alpha and peri-trial theta power, Aim 2 will specify how an experimental manipulation that modulates attentional preparedness before a goal is processed relates to univariate blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in frontoparietal networks, multivariate decoding of goal and retrieval success representations, and behaviors in young and older adults. The aims have the potential to uncover new insights into how age- related changes in neural coding of goals and attentional preparedness affect retrieval. The experiments will leverage sophisticated empirical tools to advance new knowledge that has implications for scientific scholarship and public health. The scope of the investigation on goal processing, attention, and memory, and their interaction, will (a) advance scientific knowledge related to theories and critically underexplored topics in the cognitive neuroscience of aging and memory, and (b) better public health in terms of characterizing age- related changes in neurocognitive processes that affect cognition and behavior in everyday life.