Age-related impairments in the flexible allocation of control during learning and decision-making

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Human ageing is associated with problems in the flexible adjustment of behaviour in changing environments (such as when navigating in a new city or when having to use new technology). Findings in younger adults indicate that these impairments may be due to deficits in the adaptive control of learning strategies (Lee et al., 2014). However, the computational and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the flexible control of learning processes and how they change with age are not (yet) understood. Moreover, it is unclear how age differences in flexible regulation of learning strategies relate to the well-established decline in cognitive control abilities in older age and whether both impairments result from a shared underlying deficit. My research has two long-term goals: 1) I would like to uncover the computational and neurobiological mechanisms underlying age-related deficits in adaptive behavioural control across different cognitive domains. 2) I would like to test the hypothesis that age-related impairments in flexible behavioural control across domains result from underlying deficits in the learning and updating of representations of task structures in the prefrontal cortex. The current research proposal involves three work packages: The aim of the first work package (WP1) is to use behavioural assessments and computational modelling to establish age-related changes in the flexible control of learning strategies and how they relate to age differences in cognitive control. Furthermore, in this work package, I will manipulate the demands on the representation and updating of task structures to probe how representational demands affect age-related impairments in flexible behavioural control. In the second work package (WP2), I will study the neural dynamics underlying age-related deficits in control allocation during learning using electroencephalography (EEG). Specifically, I will use model-based EEG analyses to investigate how age differences in control demands during learning are reflected in event-related potentials (ERP's) and how they relate to age-related changes in pro-active and reactive cognitive control abilities. The objective of the second work package is to investigate whether age differences the flexible behavioural control across cognitive domains share underlying computational and neurophysiological mechanisms. In the final work package (WP3), I will use fMRI to investigate the neural systems involved in the flexible engagement of control during learning and how the recruitment of these systems changes as a function of age and representational demands. The third work package will focus on age differences in prefrontal activity involved in the flexible control of learning strategies and it will allow me establish whether control strategies in different domains rely on shared underlying neural systems.