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Relationships between neural selectivity at encoding and retrieval in face- and scene-selective neural regions in young and middle-aged adults

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Marianne de Chastelaine¹ (), Ambereen Kidwai¹, Sarah Monier¹, Michael Rugg¹; ¹UTD, Center for Vital Longevity, Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Results from a recent fMRI study employing multi-voxel pattern analysis indicated an age-invariant association between neural selectivity for face and scene images at encoding and retrieval-related reinstatement of face and scene information. Here, we investigated whether this relationship generalized to young (18 to 27 years) and middle-aged (44 to 56 years) adults and to univariate rather than multi-voxel measures of selectivity. While undergoing fMRI scanning, participants encoded words paired with images of faces or scenes. In a subsequent scanned memory test, participants made sequential item (old/new) and source memory (face/scene) judgements. Item and source memory accuracy were both lower in middle-aged relative to young adults. Selectivity at encoding and retrieval was quantified as the difference between the mean BOLD response of a given ROI’s preferred and non-preferred image class, scaled by the pooled standard deviation of the single-trial beta estimates. Robust age-invariant selectivity for face and scene information was identified in face- and scene-selective ROIs at both encoding and retrieval. Echoing prior findings, scene-selectivity was positively correlated between encoding and retrieval. Selectivity metrics correlated positively between face- and scene-selective ROIs at encoding, but correlated negatively between the same ROIs at retrieval. This latter finding is suggestive of a trade-off between the resources allocated to face and scene retrieval. Across age groups there was a positive association between encoding-related selectivity and memory performance. At retrieval, however, this association was positive for young adults but negative for middle-aged adults, suggestive of differential retrieval strategies in the two age groups.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic