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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Haley Keenan

  • BSc (St. Francis Xavier University, 2022)

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Science

Topic

An Investigation of Functional Connectivity Strength With the Posterior Cingulate Cortex in SuperAgers

Department of Psychology

Date & location

  • Wednesday, August 12, 2026

  • 9:30 A.M.

  • Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Jodie Gawryluk, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

  • Dr. Erin Mazerolle, Department of Psychology, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Brian Christie, School of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Sandra Marquis, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic

     

Abstract

While memory decline in older age is typically thought of as being inevitable, a remarkable group of older adults has been identified that maintains youthful memory in older age. Previous research has identified structural and functional brain differences compared to their typically aging counterparts. The current study sought to determine if a group of SuperAgers (SA) could be identified from an open access dataset of 120 older adults and then compare their voxelwise connectivity strength in the brain’s default mode network (DMN) with a group of typical older adults (TOA) and young adults (YA). Additionally, associations between regions of significantly different group functional connectivity were explored. I identified 15 SA and matched TOA and YA with a ratio of 1:1 (N = 45). Voxelwise connectivity analyses were conducted, comparing functional connectivity strength in the DMN seed region (left posterior cingulate cortex [L PCC]) with all other voxels in the brain. Correlational analyses were conducted comparing functional connectivity strength with memory performance on the Verbal Paired Associates (VPA) task. SA did not show any regions of increased or decreased functional connectivity strength compared to TOA. SA did, however, demonstrate significantly stronger functional connectivity with the right frontal pole, right dorsal caudate, and left Crus I compared to YA. Conversely, YA had stronger functional connectivity with the left postcentral gyrus compared to SA. Of these four regions of significant difference, only the connectivity strength between the LPCC and right caudate was significantly correlated with memory performance. This novel finding creates a new avenue of exploration into the mechanisms underlying SuperAging.

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