Older Age and Generalization
Effects of Older Age on the Neural Basis of Memory Generalization
Caitlin Bowman
360 participants
Jun 15, 2026
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
The goal of this clinical is to learn how the brain supports different kinds of memory decisions in healthy young and older adults. The main question it seeks to answer is: Do older adults make memory decisions by integrating across experiences? Young (aged 18-30 years) and older (aged 65-80 years) participants will complete a memory task while undergoing functional MRI to measure their brain responses. Researchers will compare brain measures of integration in older adults to those of young adults to see if integration increases in older age.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria5
- Either aged 18-30 years (young adults) or aged 65-80 years (older adults) (self-report)
- Fluent in English (self-report)
- Right-handed (self-report)
- Cognitively healthy (self report verified by score > 24 on Montreal Cognitive Assessment)
- Self-reported normal or corrected-to-normal vision
Exclusion Criteria4
- Self-reported neurological disorder (e.g., Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease)
- Self-reported uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, or thyroid disorder
- Having conditions or devices that are unsafe for MRI (assessed via imaging center's MRI safety screening form)
- Self-reported difficulty lying still on one's back for 1-2 hours
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Interventions
Subjects will be probed to either remember an association they saw directly during the study phase or to make an inference across indirectly associated items.
Locations(1)
View Full Details on ClinicalTrials.gov
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NCT07440017