Increased Early Processing of Task-Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli in Older Adults
View/ Open
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165645Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Tusch, Erich S., Brittany R. Alperin, Phillip J. Holcomb, and Kirk R. Daffner. 2016. “Increased Early Processing of Task-Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli in Older Adults.” PLoS ONE 11 (11): e0165645. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165645. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165645.Abstract
The inhibitory deficit hypothesis of cognitive aging posits that older adults’ inability to adequately suppress processing of irrelevant information is a major source of cognitive decline. Prior research has demonstrated that in response to task-irrelevant auditory stimuli there is an age-associated increase in the amplitude of the N1 wave, an ERP marker of early perceptual processing. Here, we tested predictions derived from the inhibitory deficit hypothesis that the age-related increase in N1 would be 1) observed under an auditory-ignore, but not auditory-attend condition, 2) attenuated in individuals with high executive capacity (EC), and 3) augmented by increasing cognitive load of the primary visual task. ERPs were measured in 114 well-matched young, middle-aged, young-old, and old-old adults, designated as having high or average EC based on neuropsychological testing. Under the auditory-ignore (visual-attend) task, participants ignored auditory stimuli and responded to rare target letters under low and high load. Under the auditory-attend task, participants ignored visual stimuli and responded to rare target tones. Results confirmed an age-associated increase in N1 amplitude to auditory stimuli under the auditory-ignore but not auditory-attend task. Contrary to predictions, EC did not modulate the N1 response. The load effect was the opposite of expectation: the N1 to task-irrelevant auditory events was smaller under high load. Finally, older adults did not simply fail to suppress the N1 to auditory stimuli in the task-irrelevant modality; they generated a larger response than to identical stimuli in the task-relevant modality. In summary, several of the study’s findings do not fit the inhibitory-deficit hypothesis of cognitive aging, which may need to be refined or supplemented by alternative accounts.Other Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5091907/pdf/Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:29625987
Collections
- HMS Scholarly Articles [17922]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Anticipation of Monetary Reward Can Attenuate the Vigilance Decrement
Esterman, Michael; Grosso, Mallory; Liu, Guanyu; Mitko, Alex; Morris, Rachael; DeGutis, Joseph (Public Library of Science, 2016)Motivation and reward can have differential effects on separate aspects of sustained attention. We previously demonstrated that continuous reward/punishment throughout a sustained attention task improves overall performance, ... -
Mapping Genetically Controlled Neural Circuits of Social Behavior and Visuo-Motor Integration by a Preliminary Examination of Atypical Deletions with Williams Syndrome
Hoeft, Fumiko; Dai, Li; Haas, Brian W.; Sheau, Kristen; Mimura, Masaru; Mills, Debra; Galaburda, Albert; Bellugi, Ursula; Korenberg, Julie R.; Reiss, Allan L. (Public Library of Science, 2014)In this study of eight rare atypical deletion cases with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WS; also known as 7q11.23 deletion syndrome) consisting of three different patterns of deletions, compared to typical WS and typically ... -
Gender Differences in Sustained Attentional Control Relate to Gender Inequality across Countries
Riley, Elizabeth; Okabe, Hidefusa; Germine, Laura; Wilmer, Jeremy; Esterman, Michael; DeGutis, Joseph (Public Library of Science, 2016)Sustained attentional control is critical for everyday tasks and success in school and employment. Understanding gender differences in sustained attentional control, and their potential sources, is an important goal of ...