Abstract
The focus of the present study was to examine the cognitive processes comprising advance preparation – rule representation, task-set updating, and task-set reconfiguration – in young (20–25 years) and older adults (61–83 years). Specifically, this study aimed at further characterizing age-related differences in advance preparation, and evaluating how additional time to prepare might reduce behavioral costs in older adults. In line with previous findings, reaction time mixing costs were slightly larger for older compared to young adults, whereas behavioral switch costs were age-invariant. Following short preparation (600 ms), smaller antero-frontal event-related potential (ERP) correlates of rule representation were associated with pronounced congruency costs in older adults. Centro-parietal ERP correlates of task-set updating and task-set reconfiguration were not delayed, but smaller in magnitude for older compared to young adults. Longer preparation (1200 ms) enabled older adults to re-activate relevant task rules, as evident in reduced congruency costs, and temporally sustained ERP correlates of task-set updating and rule representation well beyond 600 ms. Age-invariant switch costs appear related to additional, potentially compensatory frontal activity recruited by older adults to overcome difficulties in task-set reconfiguration.
Highlights
IntroductionBehavior needs to be flexibly adapted in many different situations
Everyday, behavior needs to be flexibly adapted in many different situations
Older adults were able to take advantage of longer time to prepare, in particular for incongruent trials. Consistent with these behavioral benefits, event-related potential (ERP) analyses suggest that age differences during task-set coordination were present for the short, but not the long cue–target intervals (CTIs)
Summary
Behavior needs to be flexibly adapted in many different situations In these instances, cognitive control is necessary to monitor changes in task demands and to select appropriate activities according to current priorities, in short, to coordinate goal-directed behavior (Koechlin et al, 2003). According to the guided activation theory (cf Miller and Cohen, 2001; O’Reilly et al, 2002), a balance between maintaining stable task representations and choosing appropriate degrees of flexibility is achieved through sustained activations in the PFC. These sustained PFC activations allow for rapid updating when task demands change, for instance in a task-switching paradigm
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