Abstract
The present study compared young and older adults on behavioral and neural correlates of three attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control). Nineteen young and 16 older neurologically-healthy adults completed the Attention Network Test (ANT) while behavioral data (reaction time and error rates) and 64-channel event-related potentials (ERPs) were acquired. Significant age-related RT differences were observed across all three networks; however, after controlling for generalized slowing, only the alerting network remained significantly reduced in older compared with young adults. ERP data revealed that alerting cues led to enhanced posterior N1 responses for subsequent attentional targets in young adults, but this effect was weakened in older adults. As a result, it appears that older adults did not benefit fully from alerting cues, and their lack of subsequent attentional enhancements may compromise their ability to be as responsive and flexible as their younger counterparts. N1 alerting deficits were associated with several key neuropsychological tests of attention that were difficult for older adults. Orienting and executive attention networks were largely similar between groups. Taken together, older adults demonstrated behavioral and neural alterations in alerting, however, they appeared to compensate for this reduction, as they did not significantly differ in their abilities to use spatially informative cues to aid performance (e.g., orienting), or successfully resolve response conflict (e.g., executive control). These results have important implications for understanding the mechanisms of age-related changes in attentional networks.
Highlights
Intact attentional processes are vital for goal-directed behavior, as they guide the allocation of cognitive resources in accordance with changing environmental demands
The present study compared young and older adults on behavioral and neural correlates of three attentional networks
A significant Group × Flanker type interaction, F(2,363) = 4.59, p < 0.02, indicated that older adult participants responded significantly more slowly compared to neutral trials for both congruent and incongruent stimuli, whereas young adults only displayed slowing compared to neutral stimuli for incongruent target conditions
Summary
Intact attentional processes are vital for goal-directed behavior, as they guide the allocation of cognitive resources in accordance with changing environmental demands. Research from the past several decades has proposed that attention is comprised of dissociable yet interrelated anatomical and functional neural networks responsible for alerting, orienting, and executive control (Posner and Peterson, 1990; Posner and Fan, 2004). Executive control of attention encompasses higher-order cognitive processes needed to resolve conflict associated with the need to override a prepotent, but contextually inappropriate response (Fan et al, 2002). These executive operations are crucial when situations are novel or difficult, and require response monitoring or inhibition of strong prepotent response tendencies (Fan and Posner, 2004)
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