Older adults' episodic memory is related to a neurophysiological marker of brain cholinergic activity.

Episodic memory is vulnerable to aging and may be influenced by age-related decline in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. We probed this relation using a novel, minimally invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation marker of brain acetylcholine: short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI). We used neuropsychological testing to construct a composite score of episodic memory in N = 19 community-dwelling older adults, and stratified older adults into Higher- (N = 9) versus Lower-memory (N = 10) groups before SAI. The Higher-memory group showed significantly stronger SAI than the Lower-memory group, indicating an association between higher brain acetylcholine levels and better episodic memory. The two memory groups were equivalent in the potential confounds of age, education, mood, subjective sleep quality, and executive function. These data converge with others to suggest that episodic memory is related to acetylcholine in older adults. This relation should be further investigated, especially with pharmacology and neuroimaging.

The roles of perspective and language in children's ability to delay gratification.

Increasing psychological distance is an established method for improving children's performance in a number of self-regulation tasks. For example, using a delay of gratification (DoG) task, Prencipe and Zelazo (Psychological Science, 2005, Vol. 16, pp. 501-505) showed that 3-year-olds delay more for "other" than they do for "self," whereas 4-year-olds make similar choices for self and other. However, to our knowledge, no work has manipulated language to increase psychological distance in children. In two experiments, we sought to manipulate psychological distance by replicating Prencipe and Zelazo's age-related findings and extending them to older children (Experiment 1) and also sought to manipulate psychological distance using the auxiliary verbs "want" and "should" to prime more impulsive preference-based decisions or more normative optimal decisions (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, 96 3- to 7-year-olds showed age-related improvements and interactive effects between age and perspective on DoG performance. In Experiment 2, 132 3- to 7-year-olds showed age-related improvements and a marginal interaction between age and perspective on DoG performance, but no effect of auxiliary verbs was detected. Results are discussed in terms of differing developmental trajectories of DoG for self and other due to psychological distancing, and how taking another's perspective may boost DoG in younger children but not older children.