FACE AND WORD MEMORY DIFFERENCES ARE RELATED TO PATTERNS OF RIGHT ANDLEFT LATERAL VENTRICLE SIZE IN HEALTHY AGING

Discrepancy between face and word memory was measured with experimenta l continuous recognition tests and compared with right-left asymmetry of lateral ventricle size, measured with volumetric x-ray computed tom ography, in 10 young and in 10 elderly subjects. All were right-handed and healthy. Old subjects differed significantly from young subjects on face but not word memory. Old subjects had significantly larger lat eral ventricles than did young subjects and more lateral ventricle asy mmetry. No group trend toward disproportionate age-related enlargement of the right ventricle relative to the left was noted. In old subject s, however, lateral ventricle asymmetry correlated with face-word memo ry discrepancies in the expected direction, worse word than face memor y being associated with disproportionate enlargement of the left later al ventricle. These correlations were not significant in young subject s. These results suggest that the group rend toward disproportionate n onverbal/visual, as opposed to verbal, age-related memory differences is not associated with a group trend toward disproportionate enlargeme nt of the right ventricle. Individual deviations from the normative pa ttern of age-related ventricle enlargement, however, are associated wi th different patterns of material-specific memory changes.