A neuropsychological analysis of memory loss with age.

This paper reports a series of experiments that assessed learning and memory performance in aged rats from a neuropsychological perspective. Relative to young adults, old rats displayed rapid rates of forgetting, increased susceptibility to interference, and poor long-term recall of specific experiences. There were no age differences on tests of short-term memory. In general, the performance of aged rats paralleled that of young rats with restricted lesions to the hippocampus, thereby supporting the conclusion that normal memory loss with age is related to progressive hippocampal dysfunction.