Event Abstract Back to Event Event-related-potentials reveal an age-related decline in inhibition during a working memory task. Helen Gaeta1, 2* and David Friedman3 1 AUT University, School of Interprofessional Health Studies, New Zealand 2 New York State Psychiatric Institute, United States 3 New York State Psychiatric Hospital, United States Reduced efficacy of neural inhibition is considered a major factor contributing to age-related cognitive decline, possibly by impairing working memory. Top-down modulation is proposed to be the neural process that underpins our ability to focus attention on relevant events and limit interference by irrelevant ones. A visually elicited event-related-potential, the N160, increases in amplitude when attention is directed at the eliciting stimulus, suggesting it can index top-down processes. This property of the N160 is utilised here during the encoding phase of a working memory task to examine the efficacy of inhibition with ageing. If efficacy of neural inhibition is compromised with ageing, then unnecessary attention should be captured by task-irrelevant stimuli, degrading performance and eliciting similar N160 amplitudes for task-relevant and -irrelevant stimuli. To assess this hypothesis, performance measures and event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 12 younger and 12 older adults. Digits were presented visually in strings from 4-11 numbers. An asterisk signalled the end of a digit-string. In one task, participants were instructed to match the first four digits of a string to a subsequent 4-digit number (delayed-matching-to-sample task, DMST). In the other task, they were instructed to match the last four digits of a string to a subsequent 4-digit number (Updating Task, UT). Thus, for the DMST only the first four digits of a series were task-relevant. By contrast, in the UT all digits in a series required attention during encoding. Performance for both age groups was better for the DMST than for the UT, but younger adults performed better than older adults on the UT. Amplitudes for N160, elicited by task-irrelevant digits in the DMST, were greater for older than younger adults. The combined behavioural and N160 data lend support to the view that age-related inhibitory decline impairs working memory, and may contribute to age-related cognitive decline. Keywords: Attention, Neural Inhibition, working memory, ERPs, cognitive ageing Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Memory and Learning Citation: Gaeta H and Friedman D (2015). Event-related-potentials reveal an age-related decline in inhibition during a working memory task.. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00116 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. Helen Gaeta, AUT University, School of Interprofessional Health Studies, Auckland, New Zealand, helen.gaeta@aut.ac.nz 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 Helen Gaeta David Friedman Google Helen Gaeta David Friedman Google Scholar Helen Gaeta David Friedman PubMed Helen Gaeta David Friedman 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.