Aging Brains Blend Memories Together Instead of Just Forgetting Them

The experiment recorded hippocampal activity in 61 participants (18–74 y) as they learned face-object or face-scene pairs, rested, and later recalled the pairings. Younger adults recalled more accurately when retrieval patterns resembled encoding patterns; older adults showed comparable pattern overlap but produced more cross-category errors. Brain atrophy and attentional differences did not explain the age-related decline in memory precision.