Reactive inhibitory control is reduced in older adults: A behavioural and electroencephalographic study.

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Reactive inhibitory control is reduced in older adults: A behavioural and electroencephalographic study. Paul Sowman1* 1 Macquarie University, Cognitive Science, Australia Aging is characterised by a decline in the competence of inhibitory processing. The current study used a variant of the stop signal task (SST) to examine two questions in relation to inhibitory control: to what extent does the normal aging process impair reactive and proactive inhibition and to what extent does proactive inhibition impact upon the stop signal reaction time (SSRT)? Two types of go signal were presented in this study. The first type, 'maybe stop' alerted the subject to the possibility that the go signal might be followed by a stop signal. The second type of go signal, 'always go', indicated that there would be no following stop signal. This task allowed a measure of caution (proactive inhibition) as well outright stopping ability (reactive inhibition) to be estimated. Additionally, by explicitly manipulating the probability of the stop signal following the 'maybe stop' signal we were able to gauge whether proactive inhibitory control affected the following reactive inhibitory process. The study was conducted on a group of 48 subjects, 32 of whom were aged 18-25 years and 16 of whom were aged over 50 years. Analysis of the behavioural results revealed a significant effect of age on SSRT and simple reaction time but there was no significant effect on proactive inhibition. In both groups stop probability significantly reduced SSRT and lengthened the response cost. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings revealed that the stop signal-evoked P300 was smaller in the old than the young subjects, mirroring the difference in reactive inhibition performance. Furthermore, in both groups the P300 elicited by the stop signal was reduced in amplitude and later in time for unsuccessful stopping compared to successful stopping. The current study further demonstrates that cognitive control is behaviourally impaired in aging and that neurophysiological markers of inhibition index this change. Keywords: Aging, EEG, stop signal task, Inhibitory Control, caution, Eletroencephalography Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Cognition and Executive Processes Citation: Sowman P (2015). Reactive inhibitory control is reduced in older adults: A behavioural and electroencephalographic study.. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00337 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: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Paul Sowman, Macquarie University, Cognitive Science, Sydney, Australia, paul.sowman@mq.edu.au 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 Paul Sowman Google Paul Sowman Google Scholar Paul Sowman PubMed Paul Sowman 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.