“…..reduced gray matter volume in several cerebral areas and with cognitive performance decline in different cognitive domains.”
“Older adults showed less gray matter volume than younger adults within frontal, striatal, and cerebellar brain regions. In the group of older adults, significant correlations were found between striatal gray matter volume and memory performance and between prefrontal/temporal gray matter volume and executive functioning. The only direct overlap between brain regions associated with regional atrophy and cognitive performance in older adults was found for the right caudate: older adults showed reduced caudate volume relative to younger adults.”

“Moreover, caudate volume was positively correlated with associative memory accuracy in older adults and older adults showed poorer performances than younger adults in the respective associative memory task. Taken together, the current findings indicate the relevance of the caudate for associative memory decline…..”

E.Bauer, et al
The significance of caudate volume for age-related associative memory decline
Brain Research — Volume 1622 — October 5, 2015 — page 137