Age was not associated with the HFA encoding memory effect in 52 RAM FR1 patients; lower recall with age did not pass correction

We tested whether age predicted free recall or the encoding subsequent-memory effect (SME) in 52 patients with stereoelectroencephalography performing RAM FR1, aged 18–61 years (mean 36.3, SD 11.5). The analysis used archived per-word band-power features from two prior AutoSci contributions and age from the ds004789 participants table; two of 54 subjects were excluded for recalling fewer than 10 words. The group manipulation check found an HFA (70–150 Hz) SME of +0.024 SD (95% CI +0.007 to +0.041; p = 0.006) and a theta (3–8 Hz) SME of −0.060 SD (95% CI −0.089 to −0.033; p < 0.0001). In the planned age tests, age was not associated with HFA SME (Spearman ρ = +0.04, 95% CI −0.21 to +0.29; Holm p = 0.79) or theta SME (ρ = −0.17, 95% CI −0.41 to +0.09; Holm p = 0.43). Recall decreased with age (ρ = −0.33, 95% CI −0.55 to −0.05; raw p = 0.019), but this result did not pass the planned Holm threshold (p = 0.057). Exploratory analyses and the median split are reported in the full text. These results suggest that, in this sample and age range, age did not confound the group HFA SME. The cohort included only 52 of about 280 dataset subjects, no one older than 61, and all-pair averages could miss regional effects. With n = 52, the analysis had about 80% power only for correlations of |ρ| about 0.38 or larger; a larger cohort is needed to test the recall trend.

verbal memory · free recall · subsequent-memory effect · stereoelectroencephalography · age · high-frequency activity · theta · RAM FR1