Combined frontal and parietal P300 amplitudes indicate compensated cognitive processing across the lifespan

Rik Van Dinteren,Roy P C Kessels,Martijn Arns,Marijtje L A Jongsma

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2014.00294

Abstract

In the present study the frontal and parietal P300, elicited in an auditory oddball paradigm were investigated in a large sample of healthy participants (N = 1572), aged 6–87. According to the concepts of the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) it was hypothesized that the developmental trajectories of the frontal P300 would reach a maximum in amplitude at an older age than the amplitude of the parietal P300 amplitude. In addition, the amplitude of the frontal P300 was expected to increase with aging in adulthood in contrast to a decline in amplitude of the parietal P300 amplitude. Using curve-fitting methods, a comparison was made between the developmental trajectories of the amplitudes of the frontal and parietal P300. It was found that the developmental trajectories of frontal and parietal P300 amplitudes differed significantly across the lifespan. During adulthood, the amplitude of the parietal P300 declines with age, whereas both the frontal P300 amplitude and behavioral performance remain unaffected. A lifespan trajectory of combined frontal and parietal P300 amplitudes was found to closely resemble the lifespan trajectory of behavioral performance. Our results can be understood within the concepts of CRUNCH. That is, to compensate for declining neural resources, older participants recruit additional neural resources of prefrontal origin and consequently preserve a stable behavioral performance. Though, a direct relation between amplitude of the frontal P300 and compensatory mechanisms cannot yet be claimed.

Highlights

THE P300 COMPLEXThe event-related potential (ERP) is a waveform that is commonly determined by averaging brain activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG) time-locked to a specific event, for instance an auditory stimulus
The aim of the current study was to test compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) by comparing the developmental trajectories of the frontal and parietal P300 elicited in an auditory oddball paradigm
It was expected that the developmental trajectories of the frontal and parietal P300 amplitudes would be markedly different, and that the combined frontal and parietal P300 would be better related to behavior as compared to either of these in isolation

Summary

Introduction

The event-related potential (ERP) is a waveform that is commonly determined by averaging brain activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG) time-locked to a specific event, for instance an auditory stimulus. The P300 complex of the ERP is a large positive waveform that reaches its peak amplitude at approximately 300 milliseconds after stimulus presentation (Sutton et al, 1965). In the oddball paradigm a participant is presented with two (or more when distracter stimuli are included) different stimuli that have to be discriminated. The oddball is a simple task that can be executed by very young children, adults and the elderly. This is an important advantage in aging studies that, like this paper, investigate a broad age range

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