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Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time.

ABSTRACT: Intra-subject variation in reaction time (ISVRT) is a developmentally-important phenomenon that decreases from childhood through young adulthood in parallel with the development of executive functions and networks. Prior work has shown a significant association between trial-by-trial variations in reaction time (RT) and trial-by-trial variations in brain activity as measured by the blood-oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. It remains unclear, however, whether such "RT-BOLD" relationships vary with age. Here, we determined whether such trial-by-trial relationships vary with age in a cross-sectional design. We observed an association between age and RT-BOLD relationships in 11 clusters located in visual/occipital regions, frontal and parietal association cortex, precentral/postcentral gyrus, and thalamus. Some of these relationships were negative, reflecting increased BOLD associated with decreased RT, manifesting around the time of stimulus presentation and positive several seconds later. Critically for present purposes, all RT-BOLD relationships increased with age. Thus, RT-BOLD relationships may reflect robust, measurable changes in the brain-behavior relationship across development.

SUBMITTER: Adleman NE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5099497 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time.

Adleman Nancy E NE Chen Gang G Reynolds Richard C RC Frackman Anna A Razdan Varun V Weissman Daniel H DH Pine Daniel S DS Leibenluft Ellen E

Developmental cognitive neuroscience 20160512

Intra-subject variation in reaction time (ISVRT) is a developmentally-important phenomenon that decreases from childhood through young adulthood in parallel with the development of executive functions and networks. Prior work has shown a significant association between trial-by-trial variations in reaction time (RT) and trial-by-trial variations in brain activity as measured by the blood-oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. It remain ...[more]

PMID: 27239972

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Project description:In young adults, the neural correlates of successful recollection vary with the specificity (or amount) of information retrieved. We examined whether the neural correlates of recollection are modulated in a similar fashion in older adults. We compared event-related potential (ERP) correlates of recollection in samples of healthy young and older adults (N = 20 per age group). At study, participants were cued to make one of two judgments about each of a series of words. Subsequently, participants completed a memory test for studied and unstudied words in which they first made a Remember/Know/New (RKN) judgment, followed by a source memory judgment when a word attracted a 'Remember' (R) response. In young adults, the 'left parietal effect' - a putative ERP correlate of successful recollection - was largest for test items endorsed as recollected (R judgment) and attracting a correct source judgment, intermediate for items endorsed as recollected but attracting an incorrect or uncertain source judgment, and, relative to correct rejections, absent for items endorsed as familiar only (K judgment). In marked contrast, the left parietal effect was not detectable in older adults. Rather, regardless of source accuracy, studied items attracting an R response elicited a sustained, centrally maximum negative-going deflection relative to both correct rejections and studied items where recollection failed (K judgment). A similar retrieval-related negativity has been described previously in older adults, but the present findings are among the few to link this effect specifically to recollection. Finally, relative to correct rejections, all classes of correctly recognized old items elicited an age-invariant, late-onsetting positive deflection that was maximal over the right frontal scalp. This finding, which replicates several prior results, suggests that post-retrieval monitoring operations were engaged to an equivalent extent in the two age groups. Together, the present results suggest that there are circumstances where young and older adults engage qualitatively distinct retrieval-related processes during successful recollection.

Project description:Background: Multi-tasking is usually impaired in older people. In multi-tasking, a fixed order of sub-tasks can improve performance by promoting a time-structured preparation of sub-tasks. How proactive control prioritizes the pre-activation or inhibition of complex tasks in older people has received no sufficient clarification so far. Objective: To explore the effects of aging on neural proactive control mechanisms in a dual task. Methodology: To address this question, the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm was used. Two 2-alternative-forced-choice reaction tasks with a predefined order (T1 and T2) signaled by a cue had to be executed simultaneously or consecutively by young (mean age 25.1 years, n = 36) and old subjects (mean age 70.4 years, n = 118). Performance indices of dual-task preparation were used to assess the focused preparation of T1 and T2. To compare preparatory mechanisms at the neurophysiologic level, multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded and negative slow cortical potentials (SCPs) were analyzed as objective markers of the amount and localization of cortical pre-activation before sub-task presentation. Results: Dual-task performance was significantly slower in old adults. T1 performance was facilitated in both age groups, but T2 processing in old adults was not optimized by the temporal structure as efficiently as in young adults. Also, only young adults manifested a stable pattern of focused of negative slow-wave activity increase at medial frontal and right-hemisphere posterior regions, which was associated with a coordinated preparatory T1 pre-activation and T2 deferment, while old adults manifested a broad topographic distribution of negative SCPs associated with a pre-activation of sensory and motor processes. Conclusions: These observations demonstrate that the proactive preparation for dual tasking is altered with aging. It is suggested that in young adults, attention-based pre-activation of working memory and inhibitory networks in the right hemisphere synchronizes the simultaneous preparation of the two sub-tasks, whereas in old adults, sensory and motor networks appear to be non-specifically pre-activated for subsequent deferred mode of processing.

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Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time.

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Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time.

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