Can a redundant cue compensate for age-related deficits in executive functioning? An ERP study of task switching

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Can a redundant cue compensate for age-related deficits in executive functioning? An ERP study of task switching Sergei A. Schapkin1* and Gabriele Freude1 1 Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Germany Older adults are assumed to have larger global switch costs (GC) than younger adults under memory-based switching and reduce them under predictable cue-based switching when a redundant cue is presented. Fifty healthy younger and 46 healthy older employees had to perform a predictable cue-based and memory-based switching task while event-related brain potentials were registered. Older adults responded slower in both conditions and made more errors in the memory-based block. Cue presentation abolished age differences in GC in accuracy but could not reduce them in speed. The frontal P2 in older adults increased with working memory load while no memory effects on P2 in younger adults were found. The P3b in older adults was smaller and more evenly distributed over frontal and parietal regions than in younger adults. The P3b latency increased with memory load in younger adults while no memory effects on P3b latency in older adults were observed. Older adults showed both larger N1 over occipital areas and motor potential (MP) over central sites as well as a prolonged N2 latency than younger adults. The results suggest that age differences in GC are less due to the memory process supporting storage of task sets but more to the executive process proving inhibition of an irrelevant task set (N2) and activation of a relevant one (P3b). An enhanced stimulus encoding and focused attention (N1 and P2) as well as an increased motor preparation (MP) are putative mechanisms to compensate for deficits in executive function underlying task switching in older people. In turn, the age-related allocation of attentional resources to stimulus encoding and motor preparation may shorten resources requiring for executive control. Keywords: Aging, task-switching Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Cognitive Aging Citation: Schapkin SA and Freude G (2011). Can a redundant cue compensate for age-related deficits in executive functioning? An ERP study of task switching. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00551 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Sergei A Schapkin, Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Berlin, Germany, schapkin.sergei@baua.bund.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Sergei A Schapkin Gabriele Freude Google Sergei A Schapkin Gabriele Freude Google Scholar Sergei A Schapkin Gabriele Freude PubMed Sergei A Schapkin Gabriele Freude Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.