To Örebro University

Proactive interference (PI) occurs when old information interferes with newly acquired information and has been suggested as a major cause of forgetting in working memory. In this study, we investigate cross-sectional (N = 267) and longitudinal (N = 148) associations between PI and white-matter integrity (WMI) using diffusion-weighted imaging in an adult life-span sample (25-80 years; M^age = 60.15; 138 female). Older age was related to higher PI and lower WMI. Cross-sectional analyses showed associations between PI and WMI spanning several white-matter tracts as well as globally, suggesting that the age-related decline in PI may be driven primarily by global changes in WMI. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in PI were shown to be negatively correlated with concurrent changes in WMI in the fornix. Mediation analyses showed that WMI mediated the relationship between age and PI only in older adults, indicating that WMI becomes increasingly connected to cognitive functioning with increasing age. This is the first demonstration of WMI decline contributing to the age-related decline in PI.

In memory, familiar but no longer relevant information may disrupt encoding and retrieval of to-be-learned information. While it has been demonstrated that the ability to resolve proactive interference (PI) in working memory (WM) is reduced in aging, the neuroanatomical components of this decline have yet to be determined. Hippocampal (HC) involvement in age-related decline in control of PI is currently not known. In particular, the association between HC subfield volumes and control of PI in WM has not been examined previously. Here we investigate the associations between mean level and 5-year trajectories of gray matter subfield volumes and PI in WM across the adult life span (N = 157). Longitudinal analyses over 5-years across all participants revealed that reduced volume in the subiculum was related to impaired control of PI. Age-stratified analyses showed that this association was most pronounced in older adults. Furthermore, we found that in older adults the effect of age on PI was mediated by GM volume in the HC. The current results show that HC volume is associated with the ability to control PI in WM, and that these associations are modulated by age.