Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Casey, BJ

Abstract

One of the mind's most fundamental and fascinating facets is memory. We rely on memory to learn about the world around us and adapt to the environment we live in. Yet there are considerable individual differences in memory abilities. Moreover, memory abilities also change across the lifespan. Here, across three studies, each focusing on a distinct developmental stage (youth, young adulthood and aging), I demonstrate that individual differences in aspects of memory performance can be predicted from functional brain connectivity. Importantly, beyond capturing individual differences, I present approaches to dissociate different cognitive processes and their corresponding brain networks as well as to capture cognitive maturity above and beyond chronological age in a developmental population. Together, the work presented in this dissertation illustrates the utility of predictive models in characterizing neural processes underlying individual differences in memory across the lifespan and lays the foundation for future research to modulate such neural signatures using intervention methods.

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