Differential Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Situation between Young and Older Adults Over Recall and Recognition

Abstract

Memory formation is modulated by anxiety, depression and sleep quality, and it is altered as a consequence of normal aging. During the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression values increased and sleep quality decreased, being young adults the more affected. It has been proposed that older adults had better coping mechanisms that could have diminished the negative effects of isolation. Furthermore, we have previously shown that this mental health deterioration, directly affected encoding of aversive episodic memories. Thus, we aimed to study the differential effects of the lockdown on memory processes in young and older adults. We hypothesized that as mental health was more impaired in young adults, their higher performance in episodic memory tasks over older adults would be lost during the pandemic. Participants completed a set of anxiety, depression and sleep quality tests, watched an aversive video and gave a free recall (day 1). On day 2, they performed a recognition and a free recall task, and carried out an episodic order task. We observed that anxiety and depression values were higher for both young and older adults compared to their respective population mean values before pandemic. In addition, younger adults had significantly higher values of anxiety as well as depression than older ones. Interestingly, older adults performed significantly better in the free recall task and both groups ordered the episodic events to an equal extent. However, young adults recognized faces better than older adults. As expected, the pandemic situation altered episodic memory processes markedly in young adults.