Age-related differences in the human hippocampus: Behavioral, structural and functional measures

Abstract

In this chapter we review the behavioral and neuroimaging literature on age-related differences in hippocampal function. Although it is well known that older adults have reduced relational memory, which depends on the hippocampus, and that hippocampal volume is reduced in older adults, activity in this region is not uniformly lower in older than younger adults during encoding and retrieval tasks. Nevertheless, when the functional neuroimaging evidence is examined in light of current theories of the pattern separation and completion processes carried out by the hippocampus, both processes appear to be altered in older age. We conclude with some suggestions for future work in this field.