ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018
Locus coeruleus integrity in old age is selectively related to memories linked with salient negative events.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 173 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidental Learning: A Systematic Review of Its Effect on Episodic Memory Performance in Older Age.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Altered locus coeruleus links to atrophy and hypometabolism in individuals with high Alzheimer's disease biomarkers.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Trial
- Improvement of mnemonic discrimination with acute light exercise is mediated by pupil-linked arousal in healthy older adults.Neurobiology of aging · 2024Trial
- Daily heart rate variability biofeedback training decreases locus coeruleus MRI contrast in younger adults in a randomized clinical trial.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2023Trial
- Distinct Roles of Dopamine and Noradrenaline in Incidental Memory.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Trial
- Molecular programs in human locus coeruleus link APOE and neuromelanin to Alzheimer's vulnerability.Acta neuropathologica · 2026Article
- Locus Coeruleus as a Master Regulator of Diverse Functions in the Central Nervous System: Its Relevance in Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disorders.Annals of neurosciences · 2026Review
- eyeris: A Flexible, Extensible, and Reproducible Pupillometry Preprocessing Framework in R.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- BOLD fMRI activations and LC contrast associated with successful episodic memory in healthy older adults and MCI.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Acupuncture-induced changes in locus coeruleus connectivity and memory improvement in patients with amnestic cognitive impairment.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2026Article
- Locus coeruleus degeneration is associated with cortical tau deposition and cognitive decline in older adults at familial risk of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Article
- Electroencephalography, pupillometry, and behavioral evidence for locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system related tonic hyperactivity in older adults.Neurobiology of aging · 2026Article
- Pupil dilation as a marker of attention/effort in aging and mild cognitive impairment.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- A locus coeruleus-centric framework for novelty, salience, and gamma oscillations: implications for neurostimulation, aging, and disease.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- The potential of neuromelanin-sensitive MRI in psychiatric disorders.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Article
- Eye movement evidence for locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system contributions to age differences in attention.Psychology and aging · 2025Article
- Inverse Association of Locus Coeruleus MRI Integrity With Structural Volume and Its Impact on Individual's Inattentiveness.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Preoperative Cholinergic Signatures Drive Segregated Brain Architecture in Postoperative Delirium.Research square · 2025Article
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The locus coeruleus (LC) is the principal origin of noradrenaline in the brain. LC integrity varies considerably across healthy older individuals, and is suggested to contribute to altered cognitive functions in aging. Here we test this hypothesis using an incidental memory task that is known to be susceptible to noradrenergic modulation. We used MRI neuromelanin (NM) imaging to assess LC structural integrity and pupillometry as a putative index of LC activation in both younger and older adults. We show that older adults with reduced structural LC integrity show poorer subsequent memory. This effect is more pronounced for emotionally negative events, in accord with a greater role for noradrenergic modulation in encoding salient or aversive events. In addition, we found that salient stimuli led to greater pupil diameters, consistent with increased LC activation during the encoding of such events. Our study presents novel evidence that a decrement in noradrenergic modulation impacts on specific components of cognition in healthy older adults. The findings provide a strong motivation for further investigation of the effects of altered LC integrity in pathological aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.