Abstract
Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) may affect decision-making processes. This study aimed to investigate the neuronal correlates of feedback processing during a decision-making task in young and older adults with and without SMCs. Event-related potentials and behavioral performance during the Iowa gambling task were recorded in a total of 136 participants (65 young adults, 71 older adults). The participants were divided into two groups according to their SMCs (with SMCs: n = 60, without SMCs: n = 76). Feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 were analyzed in the feedback stage of the decision-making process. Older adults with SMCs scored worse in the ambiguity phase than older adults without SMCs. The FRN latency was longer for losses in older people with SMCs than in older people without SMCs in the first block. No significant differences between young and older adults with and without SMCs were observed in the other ERP measures. Compared to young adults, older adults showed delayed latency in the FRN component and reduced amplitudes and delayed latency in the P3 component. In conclusion, older people with SMCs present deficits in the decision-making process. These deficits are observed at the behavioral level, but also in neural mechanisms of early feedback processing of negative outcomes.
Highlights
Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) represent an individual’s perception of subtle changes in memory in the absence of an objective memory impairment (Steinberg et al, 2013)
We focus on two Event-related potentials (ERPs) components called Feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P3 during the feedback evaluation stage
To investigate differences in behavioral performance on the Iowa gambling task (IGT), we carried out a rm-ANOVA with Block (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) as the within-subject factor, Group (SMCs, no SMCs (noSMCs)) and Age as the between-subject factors, and the IG scores on the 100 trials as the dependent variable
Summary
Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) represent an individual’s perception of subtle changes in memory in the absence of an objective memory impairment (Steinberg et al, 2013). Using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique, a recent study by Hu et al (2017) observed a decrease in future-oriented decision making in participants with SMCs when compared to a control group of older adults. They observed that future imagination increased future-oriented choices and was associated with increased activation in the medial frontal polar cortex, right insular cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex in controls, but not in SMC individuals. Little is known about the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these differences, or whether there are differences in the time course of the feedback processing
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