Poster: Where’s that Name?

Difficulties with word retrieval, especially when naming a well-known face or object, is part of the normal ageing process, but older people fear that it could be a sign of encroaching dementia. Surprisingly, little is known about these tip-of-the-tongue situations (TOTs). In this study, groups of older and younger participants were shown a series of famous faces. At the same time, their brains were scanned using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The findings from this research help contradict the assumption that TOTs in old age reflect a general memory deficit. Instead, the difficulty appears to be localised, low-level, and specifically to do with word production and the retrieval of the form of words, rather than the higher-level meaning of those words.