Neural state changes during movie watching relate to episodic memory in younger and older adults.

Abstract

Event segmentation is a key feature underlying the ability to remember real-life occurrences. At the neural level, event boundaries have been shown to align with boundaries between neural states-stable patterns of brain activity maintained over time. These neural states provide a valuable window into the neural underpinnings of event perception. To investigate how neural state boundaries relate to memory across the lifespan, we used the data-driven Greedy State Boundary Search method to implicitly identify neural state changes in younger and older adults' electroencephalography data during movie watching. Memory for the movie was tested and related to (1) neural state correspondence across individuals and (2) the degree to which the pattern of activity changes at boundaries. Neural state boundaries significantly aligned across people, but did not differ with age nor relate to memory. The degree of change at neural state boundaries also did not differ with age, but was positively related to memory for the movie. These findings suggest that age differences in the perception of naturalistic events may be less pronounced than previously thought, at least when measured implicitly, and that greater distinction between successive neural states relates to better memory for one's experiences regardless of age.