Aging is associated with episodic memory decline and changes in functional brain connectivity. Understanding whether and how biological sex influences age- and memory performance-related functional connectivity has important theoretical implications for the cognitive neuroscience of memory and aging. Here, we scanned 161 healthy adults between 19 and 76 years of age in an event-related fMRI study of face–location spatial context memory. Adults were scanned while performing easy and difficult versions of the task at both encoding and retrieval. We used multivariate whole-brain partial least squares connectivity to test the hypothesis that there are sex differences in age- and episodic memory performance-related functional connectivity. We examined how individual differences in age and retrieval accuracy correlated with task-related connectivity. We then repeated this analysis after disaggregating the data by self-reported sex. We found that increased encoding and retrieval-related connectivity within the dorsal attention network (DAN), and between DAN and frontoparietal network and visual networks, were positively correlated to retrieval accuracy and negatively correlated with age in both sexes. We also observed sex differences in age- and performance-related functional connectivity: (a) Greater between-networks integration was apparent at both levels of task difficulty in women only, and (b) increased DAN–default mode network connectivity with age was observed in men and was correlated with poorer memory performance. Therefore, the neural correlates of age-related episodic memory decline differ in women and men and have important theoretical and clinical implications for the cognitive neuroscience of memory, aging, and dementia prevention.

Given their unique connectivity, a primary function of brain networks must be to transfer and integrate information. Therefore, the way in which information is integrated by individual nodes of the network may be an informative aspect of cognitive processing. Here we present a method inspired by telecommunications research that utilizes time–frequency fluctuations of neural activity to infer how information is integrated by individual nodes of the network. We use a queueing theoretical model to interpret empirical data in terms of information processing and integration. In particular, we demonstrate, in participants aged from 6 to 41 years, that the well-known face inversion phenomenon may be explained in terms of information integration. Our model suggests that inverted faces may be associated with shorter and more frequent neural integrative stages, indicating fractured processing and consistent with the notion that inverted faces are perceived by parts. Conversely, our model suggests that upright faces may be associated with a smaller number of sustained episodes of integration, indicating more involved processing, akin to holistic and configural processing. These differences in how upright and inverted faces are processed became more pronounced during development, indicating a gradual specialization for face perception. These effects were robustly expressed in the right fusiform gyrus (all groups), as well as right parahippocampal gyrus (children and adolescents only) and left inferior temporal cortex (adults only).