成人一生中嗅觉情境与记忆：对记忆辨别和嗅觉功能的影响。

文献信息

中文摘要

背景： 气味是一种强大的情境线索，可以影响记忆，并与包括海马在内参与情景记忆的脑区密切相关。与年龄相关的嗅觉功能障碍是与认知衰退相关的最早行为变化之一，并可能导致老年人的记忆损害。海马模式分离，即减少相似经历之间干扰的过程，为年龄相关记忆衰退提供了敏感测量指标，然而关于嗅觉情境如何影响记忆辨别，目前知之甚少。在本研究中，我们考察了编码时的气味情境是否会影响年轻人和老年人的后续记忆辨别。方法：参与者完成了一项记忆相似性任务，其中物体刺激在有气味（薰衣草）和无气味情境中编码，随后进行记忆测试。结果：在所有参与者中，气味情境并未显著影响目标识别或记忆辨别。与既往研究一致，与年轻人相比，老年人表现出更差的记忆辨别和降低的嗅觉功能。然而，气味呈现顺序影响了老年人的记忆辨别，当气味情境出现在第一个编码区块时，其表现优于第二个编码区块。此外，较差的嗅觉功能与降低的记忆辨别相关，而这种关系在很大程度上可由年龄相关的嗅觉能力差异解释。结论：这些发现表明，嗅觉情境对记忆的影响取决于年龄和气味暴露的时间，强调了在评估基于气味支持衰老记忆的方法时，个体嗅觉功能差异的重要性。

英文摘要

Odor is a powerful contextual cue that can influence memory and is closely linked to brain regions involved in episodic memory, including the hippocampus. Age-related olfactory dysfunction is among the earliest behavioral changes associated with cognitive decline and may contribute to memory impairments in older adults. Hippocampal pattern separation, or the process of reducing interference among similar experiences, provides a sensitive measure of age-related memory decline, yet little is known about how olfactory context influences mnemonic discrimination. In the present study, we examined whether odor context during encoding affects subsequent mnemonic discrimination in young and older adults. Participants completed a mnemonic similarity task in which object stimuli were encoded in both odor (lavender) and no-odor contexts prior to a memory test. Across participants, odor context did not significantly influence target recognition or mnemonic discrimination. Consistent with prior work, older adults exhibited poorer mnemonic discrimination and reduced olfactory function relative to young adults. However, odor presentation order influenced mnemonic discrimination in older adults, such that performance was better when the odor context was encountered during the first encoding block compared to the second. Additionally, poorer olfactory function was associated with reduced mnemonic discrimination, and this relationship was largely explained by age-related differences in olfactory ability. These findings suggest that the influence of olfactory context on memory depends on both age and the timing of odor exposure, highlighting the importance of individual differences in olfactory function when evaluating odor-based approaches to support memory in aging.