Frontal predictors of false memory in aging

Memory errors pose a significant threat to older adults’ wellbeing, daily functioning, and independence. Importantly, older adults have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to forming false memories, where past events are remembered differently than they occurred. An extensive amount of prior research has implicated failures of frontally mediated processes such as retrieval monitoring and metacognition in the formation of false memories, with evidence of a frontal account of false memory arising from studies using behavioral, neuroimaging, and lesion methods. The goal of the current project is to provide the most methodologically comprehensive investigation of the frontal account of false memory in older adulthood to date. Specifically, we will compare the predictive validity of neuropsychological measures of frontally mediated cognitive functioning, frontal structure (i.e., cortical thickness), and both univariate and multivariate fMRI measures of frontal processing with respect to semantic and perceptual false memory. Dominance analyses will pit these five frontal predictors against one another in a “cage match”. Similarities and differences between domains with respect to relative contribution of these predictors will be explored.