ArticleCognition2021
Quantifying flexibility in thought: The resiliency of semantic networks differs across the lifespan.
Article in Cognition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed.
- Preserved topography, lateralization, selectivity, and functional connectivity of the language network in older brains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Semantic memory network resilience in aging: The role of abstract and semantically diverse words.Cognition · 2026Article
- Reduced age differences in semantic memory networks: Evidence from semantically diverse free associations.Neuropsychologia · 2026Article
- Phonological networks remain intact in multiple sclerosis.Neuropsychology · 2026Article
- Mechanisms of semantic composition in older adults: control, semantic processing, and imagery.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Investigating age-related differences in semantic control mechanisms involved in creative cognition.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Thinking climate change through the lens of abstractness: a multi-task and multi-setting investigation into generational differences in the conceptualization of ecology.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Mapping EEG Metrics to Human Affective and Cognitive Models: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Interaction of Functional Brain Networks Is Associated With k-Clique Percolation in the Human Structural Connectome.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Diffindo! Precise language comprehension in older adulthood revealed by event-related brain potential studies of domain knowledge.Cognition · 2025Article
- Cognitive and neural mechanisms of mental imagery supporting creative cognition.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Water Is and Is Not HCognitive science · 2025Article
- Leveraging relatedness-based measures in people with language disorders: A scoping review.Journal of neuropsychology · 2025Article
- How retrieval processes change with age: Exploring age differences in semantic network and retrieval dynamics.Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale · 2025Article
- Open-access network science: Investigating phonological similarity networks based on the SUBTLEX-US lexicon.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Associative thinking and creative ability in older adulthood.Creativity research journal · 2025Article
- Lexical retrieval in fluent and nonfluent aphasia: a network analysis of verbal fluency data.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Semantic Representations Are Updated Across the Lifespan Reflecting Diachronic Language Change.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Measuring individual semantic networks: A simulation study.PloS one · 2025Article
- On the complexity of metacognitive judgments of memory: evidence from retrospective confidence, feeling of knowing, and older adults.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Older adults tend to have a broader vocabulary compared to younger adults - indicating a richer storage of semantic knowledge - but their retrieval abilities decline with age. Recent advances in quantitative methods based on network science have investigated the effect of aging on semantic memory structure. However, it is yet to be determined how this aging effect on semantic memory structure relates to its overall flexibility. Percolation analysis provides a quantitative measure of the flexibility of a semantic network, by examining how a semantic memory network is resistant to "attacks" or breaking apart. In this study, we incorporated percolation analyses to examine how semantic networks of younger and older adults break apart to investigate potential age-related differences in language production. We applied the percolation analysis to 3 independent sets of data (total N = 78 younger, 78 older adults) from which we generated semantic networks based on verbal fluency performance. Across all 3 datasets, the percolation integrals of the younger adults were larger than older adults, indicating that older adults' semantic networks were less flexible and broke down faster than the younger adults'. Our findings provide quantitative evidence for diminished flexibility in older adults' semantic networks, despite the stability of semantic knowledge across the lifespan. This may be one contributing factor to age-related differences in language production.
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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.