Cognitive Resilience and the Neuroepigenetic Landscape of Spatial Memory in Aging Egyptian Fruit Bats

Abstract: To understand cognitive aging in long-lived species, we investigated the neuroepigenetic basis of spatial memory adaptation and interference in Egyptian fruit bats (textit{Rousettus aegyptiacus}). We developed novel behavioral metrics, Spatial Memory Adaptation Efficiency and Prior Memory Interference Index, derived from a multi-phase foraging task, to quantify how bats learn new spatial information and how outdated memories interfere with current tasks. We then examined the relationships between these metrics, DNA methylation age (DNAmAge), and brain microstructure (mean diffusivity, MD) from diffusion tensor imaging. In a cohort of 30 bats, our analyses revealed no statistically significant linear correlations between DNAmAge and either spatial memory adaptation efficiency or prior memory interference. Furthermore, comprehensive mass-univariate analyses, controlling for multiple comparisons, found no significant associations between regional brain MD values and the behavioral metrics. These findings, while unexpected, suggest a remarkable cognitive resilience in this long-lived species, where crucial spatial memory functions appear largely preserved across the studied age range. Our results challenge simplistic linear models of cognitive aging and imply that the neural underpinnings of complex spatial behaviors may involve more distributed networks or require more sensitive neuroimaging measures than captured by simple regional microstructural changes, highlighting the need for future longitudinal studies and advanced multivariate analytical approaches.

Subjects:	q-bio.NC; q-bio.QM
Cite as:	PX:2508.00042