Abstract
IntroductionResearch on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities (anticipatory control), whereas reactive control (following conflict detection) seems to remain intact. As proactive and reactive control abilities are associated with specific brain networks, this study investigated age-related effects on the neural substrates associated with each kind of control. MethodsIn an event-related fMRI study, a modified version of the Stroop task was administered to groups of 20 young and 20 older healthy adults. Based on the theory of dual mechanisms of control, the Stroop task has been built to induce proactive or reactive control depending on task context. ResultsBehavioral results (p<0.05) indicated faster processing of interfering items in the mostly incongruent (MI) than the mostly congruent (MC) context in both young and older participants. fMRI results showed that reactive control is associated with increased activity in left frontal areas for older participants. For proactive control, decreased activity in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex was associated with more activity in the right middle frontal gyrus in the older than the younger group. ConclusionThese observations support the hypothesis that aging affects the neural networks associated with reactive and proactive cognitive control differentially. These age-related changes are very similar to those observed in young adults with low dopamine availability, suggesting that a general mechanism (prefrontal dopamine availability) may modulate brain networks associated with various kinds of cognitive control.
Highlights
Research on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities whereas reactive control seems to remain intact [1]
As proactive and reactive control abilities were associated to specific brain networks [2], this study investigated age-related effects on the neural substrates associated to each kind of control
With regard to neuroimaging data, the comparison of the two groups showed that the processing of interferent items in the MI context is associated to decreased activity in frontal and temporal areas in the older group
Summary
Research on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities (an anticipatory form of control) whereas reactive control (consecutive to conflict detection) seems to remain intact [1]. Marine MANARD, Marine.Manard@ulg.ac.be, Allée du VI août, 8 (B30), 4000 Liège, Belgique As proactive and reactive control abilities were associated to specific brain networks [2], this study investigated age-related effects on the neural substrates associated to each kind of control.
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