Age-by-Emotion Interactions in Memory Retrieval Processes: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Objectives: Although research has identified age-by-emotion interactions in memory performance and in neural recruitment during retrieval, it remains unclear which retrieval processes are affected. The temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) provides a way to examine different component processes that operate during retrieval.

Methods: In the present study, younger and older adults encoded neutral and emotional images paired with neutral titles. ERPs were assessed during a recognition memory task in which participants viewed neutral titles and indicated whether each had been presented during encoding.

Results: An age-related posterior-to-anterior shift began in a time window typically associated with recollection-related processes (500-800 ms) while an age-by-emotion interaction occurred only during a later measurement window (800-1,200 ms).

Discussion: These findings suggest an effect of age on mechanisms supporting retrieval of episodic content, prior to post-retrieval processing. The potential relations to different types of detail retrieval are discussed. Further, the later age-by-emotion interactions suggest that age influences the effect of emotion on post-retrieval processes, specifically.