Does synaesthesia protect against age-related memory loss?


Journal

Journal of neuropsychology
ISSN: 1748-6653
Titre abrégé: J Neuropsychol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101468753

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
06 2020
Historique:
received: 13 06 2018
revised: 01 03 2019
pubmed: 31 3 2019
medline: 7 7 2021
entrez: 31 3 2019
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Synaesthesia is known to be linked to enhanced episodic memory abilities, across a variety of stimuli and tests, but the evidence has tended to come from younger adults. This enhanced cognitive ability in early adult life, together with the known brain-related differences linked to synaesthesia (e.g., in both grey and white matter structure), makes it an ideal candidate for exploring the notion of 'reserve'. That is, synaesthetes may be able to utilize additional cognitive and/or neural resources to mitigate against the effects of age-related decline. This was explored in a 2 × 2 design contrasting age (young, old) against the presence/absence of synaesthesia in two different studies: recognition memory for digits, snowflakes, and music; and visual associative learning. Synaesthesia and age had independent, non-interacting, effects on memory ability suggesting that, while synaesthetes show a memory advantage and maintain this advantage in later life, the presence of synaesthesia is not able to act as a reserve to protect against the effects of ageing. On our tasks, the benefit of having synaesthesia (enhancing memory) was of a similar magnitude to the effects of age (impairing memory); in other words, elderly synaesthetes present with 'youthful' memory abilities. It is important for future research on elderly cohorts to consider the presence of synaesthesia as an individual difference.

Identifiants

pubmed: 30927512
doi: 10.1111/jnp.12182
doi:

Types de publication

Editorial Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

197-212

Informations de copyright

© 2019 The British Psychological Society.

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Auteurs

Andy D Mealor (AD)

School of Psychology, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

Julia Simner (J)

School of Psychology, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

Jamie Ward (J)

School of Psychology, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

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