Age-related difference of neural mechanisms underlying face memories in a social context

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K03128
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10040:Experimental psychology-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Tsukiura Takashi 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科, 教授 (30344112)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 記憶 / 社会的文脈 / 加齢 / 脳 / fMRI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the age-related difference in neural mechanisms underlying face memory in a social context.
The first fMRI study for young adults demonstrated that the prediction error related to facial attractiveness was represented by multivariate activity patterns in the ventral striatum, and that the modulatory effect of face memory by the prediction error in facial attractiveness was involved in interacting mechanisms between the ventral striatum and hippocampus. In addition, in the second fMRI study for both young and older adults, we found that the striatum representation related to the processing of face-based prediction errors in a social context was significant only in young adults, and that the ventral striatum-hippocampus interaction, which was active in all conditions of prediction errors in young adults, was preserved only in the positive prediction error condition in older adults.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

顔に由来する社会的情報が顔の記憶にどのような影響を与えており、それがどのような脳内メカニズムを基盤としているのかについては、未だに多くの謎が残されている。本研究では、顔に関連する社会的文脈として顔の魅力の予測誤差に着目し、それらが顔の記憶に与える影響の基盤となる脳内メカニズムを、fMRIから検証した。この試みは、国内外にほとんど例のない新しいものであり、学術的意義も高いものであった。さらに、本研究ではこの脳内メカニズムに対する加齢の効果も検証されており、本研究の成果は高齢者の認知機能の維持・改善の基盤の理解へつながる社会的意義も高いものであった。