Aging and working memory performance: Electrophysiological correlates of high and low performing elderly
Aging and working memory performance: Electrophysiological correlates of high and low performing elderly
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.09.002
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发表时间：
2017-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Feser, Maximilian
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lubitz, Alexander F.;Niedeggen, Michael;Feser, Maximilian
在这项研究中，我们调查了年龄相关的WM容量的变化和各自的ERP相关。我们明确提出了高性能和低性能的老年人之间的区别，以确定成功的老化的电生理相关。因此，ERP和行为数据，获得了45名年轻（平均= 22.73岁）和35名老年参与者（平均= 68.49岁）。两组都进行了视觉空间n-back任务，有两个难度级别。此外，还进行了相关的神经心理学测试。年长的受试者在两种情况下的n-back任务中表现得不太准确。此外，年龄越大，在2-back任务中额叶中央阳性（标记为P200）的减少和顶叶阳性（标记为P300）的整体幅度降低也相关。后者转移到额导联老年人。此外，只有在老年参与者组中，P200振幅增加和顶叶P300振幅降低与表现相关。关于年长的高绩效和低绩效，我们观察到一个明确的转变，这两个ERP组件在高绩效组的额叶活动。高绩效者在空间工作记忆、语言学习和流体智力任务中也表现得更好。我们的结论是，工作记忆负荷的需求不断增加，伴随着年轻人和老年人的资源重新分配。随着年龄的增长，执行控制和更新过程（由两个ERP组件索引）减少或依赖于更多的正面过程进行补偿。然而，高性能的老年人，谁表现与年轻人相当，维持可比的执行控制过程，超过纯补偿。
In this study we investigated age-related changes in WM capacity and their respective ERP correlates. We explicitly addressed the differentiation between high and low performing elderly to identify electrophysiological correlates of successful aging. Therefore, ERP and behavioral data was obtained from 45 young (mean = 22.73 years) and 35 older participants (mean = 68.49 years). Both groups performed a visual-spatial n-back task with two levels of difficulty. Additionally, related neuropsychological tests were administered. Older subjects performed less accurately in both conditions of the n-back task. Older age was additionally associated with a reduced fronto-central positivity (labeled as P200) in the 2-back task and an overall reduced amplitude of the parietal positivity (labeled as P300). The latter shifted to frontal leads in older subjects. Additionally, only in the group of the older participants, increased P200 and decreased parietal P300 amplitudes correlated with performance. Regarding older high and low performers, we observed a clear shift of frontal activity of both ERP components in the group of high performers. High performers additionally performed better in spatial working memory, verbal learning, and fluid intelligence tasks. We conclude, that increasing demands of working memory load are accompanied by a reallocation of resources in both young and older adults. With age, executive control and updating processes (indexed by both ERP components) are diminished or rely on more frontal processes for compensation. However, high performing older adults, who perform comparable to young adults, sustain comparable executive control processes, exceeding pure compensation.