Skip to main content

Table 4 Strengths and limitations of the study

From: Hippocampal activity during the transverse patterning task declines with cognitive competence but not with age

Strengths and implications

The study indicates that in non-pathological aging, hippocampal neural activity does not necessarily decrease with age but is rather related to cognitive competence. These results challenge the "myth" that age decreases hippocampal activity.

The study comprised a remarkably big sample (N = 52) for neuroimaging studies and the subject pool spans a large age range (18-89 years) and includes middle-aged participants that many age-related studies lack.

A very comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests was applied leading to a well-characterized sample.

Limitations

As this is the first study, future studies need to replicate this finding.

A co-registration of MR- and MEG-activity would have been desireable, but in this study no MR scans from participants were available. Therefore, the detected activity might not have originated from the hippocampus directly but from adjacent temporal lobe structures. Future studies should combine structural and functional brain imaging techniques.