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Default mode and salience network connectivity interactions underlying the positivity effect across the adult lifespan

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

Michael DiCalogero¹ (), Meghan D. Caulfield², Kathryn Devlin¹, Irene P. Kan³, Maria T. Schultheis¹, Evangelia G. Chrysikou¹; ¹Drexel University, ²Seton Hall University, ³Villanova University

Some individuals, particularly older adults, have stronger memory for positive information compared to negative information. This positivity effect is linked to the medial prefrontal cortex, a key area of the default mode network (DMN). The salience network (SN) also includes critical areas for emotional memory. However, it remains unclear how connectivity patterns between the DMN and SN may underlie the positivity effect. To address this knowledge gap, the current study investigated DMN and SN interactions as they relate to emotional memory across the adult lifespan. We used data from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) dataset that included 294 participants (18- 87 years old). Participants completed an emotional memory task and underwent structural and functional MRI. The emotional memory task consisted of 120 encoding trials where participants saw a neutral object superimposed on a positive, negative, or neutral background. To assess item and associative memory, participants were tested on 160 objects. The positivity effect was calculated as the difference between positive and negative memory in both item and associative conditions, yielding item positivity effect and associative positivity effect scores. Functional MRI data were pre-processed using functional connectivity toolbox (CONN) pipelines. Although the results did not reach statistical significance, participants with stronger DMN connectivity tended to have a stronger positivity effect, whereas those with stronger SN and SN-DMN connectivity tended to have a weaker positivity effect. These results suggest that variability in DMN and SN connectivity patterns across the adult lifespan may differentially underlie the positivity effect.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging