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The growing population of older adults emphasizes the need to develop interventions that prevent or delay some of the cognitive decline that accompanies aging. In particular, as memory impairment is the foremost cognitive deficit affecting older adults, it is vital to develop interventions that improve memory function. This study addressed the problem of false memories in aging by training older adults to use details of past events during memory retrieval to distinguish targets from related lures. We examined the neural basis of a retrieval-based monitoring strategy by assessing changes in univariate BOLD activity and discriminability of targets and lures pre and post training. Results showed training-related decreases in false memory rates with no alterations to hit rates. Both training and practice were associated with altered recruitment of a frontoparietal monitoring network as well as benefits to neural discriminability within network regions. Participants with lower baseline neural discriminability between target and lure items exhibited the largest changes in neural discriminability. Collectively, our results highlight the benefits of training for reductions of false memories in aging. They also provide an understanding of the neural mechanisms that support these reductions. • A retrieval-based monitoring strategy led to fewer false memories in older adults. • Training and practice resulted in altered fronto-parietal neural recruitment. • Participants with lower baseline discriminability received the largest improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging is associated with decreased self-initiated use of effective elaborative encoding strategies. Little is currently known regarding what factors drive age differences in self-initiated encoding strategies. The present research investigated whether age differences in prefrontal gray matter integrity contribute to age differences in self-initiated elaborative encoding strategies. The relationships between age, prefrontal regional gray matter volumes, and overall use of self-initiated elaborative encoding strategies were examined in healthy younger and older adults. Gray matter volume was calculated from structural MRI scans using Freesurfer. Encoding strategy use was assessed by retrospective item-by-item strategy self-reports given after a verbal intentional encoding task. Left caudal middle frontal gray matter volume mediated the effect of age on overall self-initiated use of elaborative encoding strategies. This suggests that age-associated declines in prefrontal gray matter integrity significantly contribute to age-associated declines in effective encoding strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]