World
"We’re seeing a big decline in memory accuracy from the 20- to 30-year-old age group, to people in their 50s."
By WAM Published: 2026-09-02T05:41:00+04:00 2 min read
The study found that middle age is a transition point, from where memory decline could occur. Picture for illustrative purposes. Picture credit: Unsplash
Washington: A new research by a team at Binghamton University reveals why memory shifts as we age - and that shift happens earlier in life than most people think, potentially at middle age.
"This is one of a growing list of studies highlighting that the period of middle age is really important for memory functioning and shouldn't be ignored. For a long time, most studies have been focused on young adults versus older adults,” said Binghamton Associate Professor of Psychology Ian McDonough, co-author of a new study published in Cerebral Cortex.
McDonough and postdoctoral associate Destaw Mekbib tested a group of approximately 60 adults ages 18 to 74 by showing them faces paired with various objects and scenes. After a five-minute rest period, participants completed a memory test where they were prompted to pick the correct object or scene for each face - all while an MRI machine took readings of their hippocampal activity.
McDonough said the test mirrors how memories are formed. First, the brain records the new memory. Then, over a short period, the hippocampus replays the memory to stabilize it. Later, the brain retrieves the memory when needed.
The question the researchers had, however, was how aging affects the continuity of the information passing between those stages.
"We’re seeing a big decline in memory accuracy from the 20- to 30-year-old age group, to people in their 50s. Some of these hippocampal processes already start to decline by midlife,” McDonough said. "That suggests middle age is really a transition point.”