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Kassim FM, Tod S, Rodger J, Hood SD, Lee JWY, Albrecht MA, Martin-Iverson MT. Nabilone Impairs Spatial and Verbal Working Memory in Healthy Volunteers. Cannabis Cannabinoid Res 2024; 9:199-211. [PMID: 36201240 DOI: 10.1089/can.2022.0099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Memory impairments and psychosis-like experiences can be adverse effects of cannabis use. However, reports on the cognitive impact of cannabis use are not consistent. There are also limited studies on the psychotomimetic effects of cannabinoid compounds to reveal the association between cannabis and psychosis. Therefore, we investigated the effect of acute cannabinoid intoxication on verbal working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SWM) following oral doses of the synthetic cannabinoid agonist, nabilone (1-2 mg, oral). We further investigated the effect of nabilone on psychosis-like experiences (schizotypy scores) and associations of schizotypy with VWM and SWM. Methods: Healthy participants (n=28) completed spatial and digit span tasks across different delay conditions (0, 6, 12, and 18 sec) after receiving nabilone (1-2 mg, PO) or placebo in a randomized, double-blind, counterbalanced, crossover manner. A subset of participants completed a short battery of schizotypy measures (n=25). Results: Nabilone impaired VWM (p=0.03, weak effect size η2=0.02) and SWM (p=0.00016, η2=0.08). Nabilone did not significantly change overall schizotypy scores. Schizotypy scores were negatively correlated with working memory (WM) averaged across all delays and both modalities, under placebo (ρ=-0.41, p=0.04). In addition, there were significant negative correlations between occasions of cannabis use and overall WM averaged scores across drug treatments (ρ=-0.49, p=0.007) and under placebo (ρ=-0.45, p=0.004). The results showed that the drug effect in the less frequent cannabis users was more pronounced on the SWM (p<0.01) and VWM (p<0.01), whereas there appeared to be little drug effect in the frequent cannabis users. Conclusion: Low doses of synthetic cannabinoid impaired SWM and VWM, indicating that exogenous activation of the cannabinoid system influences cognitive performance. Further, the results replicated previous findings that schizotypy is correlated with deficits in WM. Clinical Trial Registry Name: Nabilone and caffeine effects on the perceptions of visually, auditory, tactile and multimodal illusions in healthy volunteers. Clinical Trial Registration Number: CT-2018-CTN-02561 (Therapeutic Goods Administration Clinical Trial Registry) and ACTRN12618001292268 (The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry).
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Affiliation(s)
- Faiz M Kassim
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Discipline of Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Sophie Tod
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Discipline of Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Jennifer Rodger
- Experimental and Regenerative Neurosciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
- Brain Plasticity Group, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Sean D Hood
- Division of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Joseph W Y Lee
- Division of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Matthew A Albrecht
- Western Australian Centre for Road Safety Research, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Mathew T Martin-Iverson
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Discipline of Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
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Jia S, Meng Y, Wang Q, Ao L, Gao Y, Yang L, Wang H, Liu Y. Intimate Relationships Weaken Female Competition: Evidence from Phase-amplitude Coupling and Event-Related Potentials. Neuroscience 2023; 534:41-53. [PMID: 37884087 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.10.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Competition, an essential component of social interaction, frequently occurs in daily life, and the impact of intimate relationships on women's competition has not yet been revealed. In this study, the visual target paradigm was used to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the regulation of female competitiveness by intimate relationships using event-related potential (ERP) data, time-frequency analysis, and brain functional connectivity. The research results indicate that, the P1, the N4, and the LPP were sensitive to the impact of intimate relationships on competition. Compared to competition between unfamiliar opposite-gender dyads, the average amplitudes of the N4 and LPP were higher in the late stage of competition between romantic partners. Compared to competition with strangers of the opposite gender, alpha band power was significantly higher when female individuals competed with their romantic partners. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the synchronization of activity in the frontal, parietal, and right temporal lobes of a female's brain and their degree of female engagement in competition. When a female individuals focused on the competition, activity synchronization was higher. The results indicate that competition with unfamiliar individuals of the opposite gender can make female focus on the competitive task, causing synchronous activation of corresponding brain regions. When competing with a romantic partner, women's focus decreases, their willingness to compete decreases, and the synchrony of brain functional connectivity decreases. This study suggests that intimate relationship weakens women's competitiveness, which is of significant importance for understanding high-quality intimate relationship and promoting the development of healthy competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuyu Jia
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Yujia Meng
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Qian Wang
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Lihong Ao
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Yuan Gao
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Lei Yang
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - He Wang
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China
| | - Yingjie Liu
- Yingjie Liu, School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei, China.
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Loughrey DG, Jordan C, Ibanez A, Parra MA, Lawlor BA, Reilly RB. Age-related hearing loss associated with differences in the neural correlates of feature binding in visual working memory. Neurobiol Aging 2023; 132:233-245. [PMID: 37866083 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.09.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Revised: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/24/2023]
Abstract
The underlying neural mechanisms underpinning the association between age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and dementia remain unclear. A limitation has been the lack of functional neuroimaging studies in ARHL cohorts to help clarify this relationship. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of feature binding in visual working memory with ARHL (controls = 14, mild HL = 21, and moderate or greater HL = 23). Participants completed a visual change detection task assessing feature binding while their neural activity was synchronously recorded via high-density electroencephalography. There was no difference in accuracy scores for ARHL groups compared to controls. There was increased electrophysiological activity in those with ARHL, particularly in components indexing the earlier stages of visual cognitive processing. This activity was more pronounced with more severe ARHL and was associated with maintained feature binding. Source space (sLORETA) analyses indicated greater activity in networks modulated by frontoparietal and temporal regions. Our results demonstrate there may be increased involvement of neurocognitive control networks to maintain lower-order neurocognitive processing disrupted by ARHL.
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Affiliation(s)
- David G Loughrey
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland.
| | - Catherine Jordan
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Agustin Ibanez
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, University of San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Mario A Parra
- School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
| | - Brian A Lawlor
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Richard B Reilly
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; School of Engineering, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland; School of Medicine, Trinity College, The University of Dublin, Ireland
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Wang J, Sun J, Li C, Tong S, Hong X. The effects of pre-cue alpha and cueing strategy on age-related deficits in post-cue alpha activity and target processing during visual spatial attention. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:11112-11125. [PMID: 37750338 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Electroencephalography alpha-band (8-13 Hz) activity during visual spatial attention declines in normal aging. We recently reported the impacts of pre-cue baseline alpha and cueing strategy on post-cue anticipatory alpha activity and target processing in visual spatial attention (Wang et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2023). However, whether these factors affected aging effects remains unaddressed. We investigated this issue in two independent experiments (n = 114) with different cueing strategies (instructional vs. probabilistic). When median-splitting young adults (YA) by their pre-cue alpha power, we found that older adults exhibited similar pre-cue and post-cue alpha activity as YA with lower pre-cue alpha, and only YA with higher pre-cue alpha showed significant post-cue alpha activity, suggesting that diminished anticipatory alpha activity was not specific to aging but likely due to a general decrease with baseline alpha. Moreover, we found that the aging effects on cue-related event-related potentials were dependent on cueing strategy but were relatively independent of pre-cue alpha. However, age-related deficits in target-related N1 attentional modulation might depend on both pre-cue alpha and cueing strategy. By considering the impacts of pre-cue alpha and cueing strategy, our findings offer new insights into age-related deficits in anticipatory alpha activity and target processing during visual spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqi Wang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Junfeng Sun
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Chunbo Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200030, China
- Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Shanbao Tong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Xiangfei Hong
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
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Lanssens A, Desender K, Gillebert CR. Evidence for an age-related decline in feature-based attention. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2023:1-23. [PMID: 37860978 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2023.2271583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Feature-based attention allows to efficiently guide attention to relevant information in the visual scene, but unambiguous empirical evidence on age-related effects is still limited. In this study, young and older participants performed a two-alternative forced choice task in which a response was selected based on a task-relevant number (=target) presented alone or with a task-irrelevant letter (=neutral distracter) or number (=compatible/incompatible distracter). Participants were required to select the target based on color. To compare the behavioral interference of the distracters between the age groups, data were modeled with a hierarchical drift-diffusion model. The results revealed that decreases in the rate at which information was collected in the conditions with versus without a distracter were more pronounced in the older than young age group when the distracter was compatible or incompatible. Our findings are consistent with an age-related decline in the ability to filter out distracters based on features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Armien Lanssens
- Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kobe Desender
- Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Celine R Gillebert
- Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Kassim FM, Lim JHM, Slawik SV, Gaus K, Peters B, Lee JWY, Hepple EK, Rodger J, Albrecht MA, Martin-Iverson MT. The effects of caffeine and d-amphetamine on spatial span task in healthy participants. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0287538. [PMID: 37440493 PMCID: PMC10343048 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies that examined the effect of amphetamine or caffeine on spatial working memory (SWM) and verbal working memory (VWM) have used various tasks. However, there are no studies that have used spatial span tasks (SSTs) to assess the SWM effect of amphetamine and caffeine, although some studies have used digit span tasks (DST) to assess VWM. Previous reports also showed that increasing dopamine increases psychosis-like experiences (PLE, or schizotypy) scores which are in turn negatively associated with WM performance in people with high schizotypy and people with schizophrenia. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the influence of d-amphetamine (0.45 mg/kg, PO), a dopamine releasing stimulant, on SST, DST, and on PLE in healthy volunteers. In a separate study, we examined the effect of caffeine, a nonspecific adenosine receptor antagonist with stimulant properties, on similar tasks. METHODS Healthy participants (N = 40) took part in two randomized, double-blind, counter-balanced placebo-controlled cross-over pilot studies: The first group (N = 20) with d-amphetamine (0.45 mg/kg, PO) and the second group (N = 20) with caffeine (200 mg, PO). Spatial span and digit span were examined under four delay conditions (0, 2, 4, 8 s). PLE were assessed using several scales measuring various aspects of psychosis and schizotypy. RESULTS We failed to find an effect of d-amphetamine or caffeine on SWM or VWM, relative to placebo. However, d-amphetamine increased a composite score of psychosis-like experiences (p = 0.0005), specifically: Scores on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Perceptual Aberrations Scale, and Magical Ideation Scale were increased following d-amphetamine. The degree of change in PLE following d-amphetamine negatively and significantly correlated with changes in SWM, mainly at the longest delay condition of 8 s (r = -0.58, p = 0.006). CONCLUSION The present results showed that moderate-high dose of d-amphetamine and moderate dose of caffeine do not directly affect performances on DST or SST. However, the results indicate that d-amphetamine indirectly influences SWM, through its effect on psychosis-like experiences. TRIAL REGISTRATION CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER CT-2018-CTN-02561 (Therapeutic Goods Administration Clinical Trial Registry) and ACTRN12618001292268 (The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry) for caffeine study, and ACTRN12608000610336 for d-amphetamine study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faiz M. Kassim
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
- Department of Psychiatry, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - J. H. Mark Lim
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Sophie V. Slawik
- Faculty of Human and Health Sciences, Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Katharina Gaus
- Faculty of Human and Health Sciences, Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Benjamin Peters
- Department of Psychiatry, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Joseph W. Y. Lee
- Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Emily K. Hepple
- Mental Health, North Metropolitan Health Services, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Jennifer Rodger
- Experimental and Regenerative Neurosciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
- Brain Plasticity Group, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, Nedlands, WA, Australia
| | - Matthew A. Albrecht
- Western Australian Centre for Road Safety Research, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australa, Crawley, WA, Australia
| | - Mathew T. Martin-Iverson
- Psychopharmacology Research Unit, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
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Bach-Morrow L, Boccalatte F, DeRosa A, Devos D, Garcia-Sanchez C, Inglese M, Droby A. Functional changes in prefrontal cortex following frequency-specific training. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20316. [PMID: 36434008 PMCID: PMC9700664 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24088-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous studies indicate a significant role of pre-frontal circuits (PFC) connectivity involving attentional and reward neural networks within attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pathophysiology. To date, the neural mechanisms underlying the utility of non-invasive frequency-specific training systems in ADHD remediation remain underexplored. To address this issue, we created a portable electroencephalography (EEG)-based wireless system consisting of a novel headset, electrodes, and neuro program, named frequency specific cognitive training (FSCT). In a double-blind, randomized, controlled study we investigated the training effects in N = 46 school-age children ages 6-18 years with ADHD. 23 children in experimental group who underwent FCST training showed an increase in scholastic performance and meliorated their performance on neuropsychological tests associated with executive functions and memory. Their results were compared to 23 age-matched participants who underwent training with placebo (pFSCT). Electroencephalogram (EEG) data collected from participants trained with FSCT showed a significant increase in 14-18 Hz EEG frequencies in PFC brain regions, activities that indicated brain activation in frontal brain regions, the caudate nucleus, and putamen. These results demonstrate that FSCT targets specific prefrontal and striatal areas in children with ADHD, suggesting a beneficial modality for non-invasive modulation of brain areas implicated in attention and executive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Francesco Boccalatte
- grid.240324.30000 0001 2109 4251Department of Pathology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY USA
| | - Antonio DeRosa
- grid.164295.d0000 0001 0941 7177Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD USA
| | - David Devos
- grid.503422.20000 0001 2242 6780Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Univ of Lille, Lille, France
| | - Carmen Garcia-Sanchez
- grid.413396.a0000 0004 1768 8905Neuropsychology Unit, Neurology Service, Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Matilde Inglese
- grid.59734.3c0000 0001 0670 2351Neurology Department, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA
| | - Amgad Droby
- grid.59734.3c0000 0001 0670 2351Neurology Department, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA
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Tajari SN, Gholami S, Rostami R, Trabelsi K, Taheri M. The effect of perceptual-motor exercise on temporal dynamics of cognitive inhibition control in children with developmental coordination disorder. Ment Health Phys Act 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mhpa.2022.100495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Abstract
Playing a musical instrument engages numerous cognitive abilities, including sensory perception, selective attention, and short-term memory. Mounting evidence indicates that engaging these cognitive functions during musical training will improve performance of these same functions. Yet, it remains unclear the extent these benefits may extend to nonmusical tasks, and what neural mechanisms may enable such transfer. Here, we conducted a preregistered randomized clinical trial where nonmusicians underwent 8 wk of either digital musical rhythm training or word search as control. Only musical rhythm training placed demands on short-term memory, as well as demands on visual perception and selective attention, which are known to facilitate short-term memory. As hypothesized, only the rhythm training group exhibited improved short-term memory on a face recognition task, thereby providing important evidence that musical rhythm training can benefit performance on a nonmusical task. Analysis of electroencephalography data showed that neural activity associated with sensory processing and selective attention were unchanged by training. Rather, rhythm training facilitated neural activity associated with short-term memory encoding, as indexed by an increased P3 of the event-related potential to face stimuli. Moreover, short-term memory maintenance was enhanced, as evidenced by increased two-class (face/scene) decoding accuracy. Activity from both the encoding and maintenance periods each highlight the right superior parietal lobule (SPL) as a source for training-related changes. Together, these results suggest musical rhythm training may improve memory for faces by facilitating activity within the SPL to promote how memories are encoded and maintained, which can be used in a domain-general manner to enhance performance on a nonmusical task.
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Understanding Electrical Failure of Polyimide-Based Flexible Neural Implants: The Role of Thin Film Adhesion. Polymers (Basel) 2022; 14:polym14183702. [PMID: 36145847 PMCID: PMC9501096 DOI: 10.3390/polym14183702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The lack of long-term stability of polymeric neural interfaces remains one of the most important and less tackled issues in this research field. To address this issue, we fabricated two test structures based on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) encapsulated with polyimide (PI). One of the test samples was pretreated with barrel oxygen plasma prior to spin coating of the second PI layer. The second test structure was pretreated using a reactive ion etching (RIE) process. The test samples were immersed in an electrolyte solution at elevated temperatures to mimic the conditions inside the human brain. The samples were then electrically and mechanically stressed to accelerate their degradation. Real-time monitoring of the electrical insulation stability was used to compare the impact of the pretreatment on the long-term stability. Barrel-plasma-activated test samples showed a mean lifetime of 1.5 days, whereas RIE pretreatment increased the mean lifetime to 24 days. Therefore, RIE-pretreated test samples exhibited 16 times longer mean stability compared to purely chemically activated test samples. Furthermore, the electrical measurements were correlated with mechanical adhesion tests. Chemically activated test samples showed significant delamination, whereas RIE pretreatment enhanced the adhesion, and no delamination could be observed. The correlation of these investigations suggests that the adhesion between different layers is higher following RIE pretreatment compared to pretreatment with chemical barrel plasma. In conclusion, the adhesion between the two PI foils seems to play a key role in the long-term stability of such devices.
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11
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Integrated cognitive and physical fitness training enhances attention abilities in older adults. NPJ AGING 2022; 8:12. [PMID: 36042247 PMCID: PMC9427998 DOI: 10.1038/s41514-022-00093-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Preserving attention abilities is of great concern to older adults who are motivated to maintain their quality of life. Both cognitive and physical fitness interventions have been utilized in intervention studies to assess maintenance and enhancement of attention abilities in seniors, and a coupling of these approaches is a compelling strategy to buttress both cognitive and physical health in a time- and resource-effective manner. With this perspective, we created a closed-loop, motion-capture video game (Body-Brain Trainer: BBT) that adapts a player’s cognitive and physical demands in an integrated approach, thus creating a personalized and cohesive experience across both domains. Older adults who engaged in two months of BBT improved on both physical fitness (measures of blood pressure and balance) and attention (behavioral and neural metrics of attention on a continuous performance task) outcome measures beyond that of an expectancy matched, active, placebo control group, with maintenance of improved attention performance evidenced 1 year later. Following training, the BBT group’s improvement on the attention outcome measure exceeded performance levels attained by an untrained group of 20-year olds, and showed age-equilibration of a neural signature of attention shown to decline with age: midline frontal theta power. These findings highlight the potential benefits of an integrated, cognitive-physical, closed-loop training platform as a powerful tool for both cognitive and physical enhancement in older adults.
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Güntekin B, Aktürk T, Arakaki X, Bonanni L, Del Percio C, Edelmayer R, Farina F, Ferri R, Hanoğlu L, Kumar S, Lizio R, Lopez S, Murphy B, Noce G, Randall F, Sack AT, Stocchi F, Yener G, Yıldırım E, Babiloni C. Are there consistent abnormalities in event-related EEG oscillations in patients with Alzheimer's disease compared to other diseases belonging to dementia? Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e13934. [PMID: 34460957 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2021] [Revised: 07/31/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Cerebrospinal and structural-molecular neuroimaging in-vivo biomarkers are recommended for diagnostic purposes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias; however, they do not explain the effects of AD neuropathology on neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning cognitive processes. Here, an Expert Panel from the Electrophysiology Professional Interest Area of the Alzheimer's Association reviewed the field literature and reached consensus on the event-related electroencephalographic oscillations (EROs) that show consistent abnormalities in patients with significant cognitive deficits due to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's (PD), Lewy body (LBD), and cerebrovascular diseases. Converging evidence from oddball paradigms showed that, as compared to cognitively unimpaired (CU) older adults, AD patients had lower amplitude in widespread delta (>4 Hz) and theta (4-7 Hz) phase-locked EROs as a function of disease severity. Similar effects were also observed in PD, LBD, and/or cerebrovascular cognitive impairment patients. Non-phase-locked alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) oscillations were abnormally reduced (event-related desynchronization, ERD) in AD patients relative to CU. However, studies on patients with other dementias remain lacking. Delta and theta phase-locked EROs during oddball tasks may be useful neurophysiological biomarkers of cognitive systems at work in heuristic and intervention clinical trials performed in AD patients, but more research is needed regarding their potential role for other dementias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bahar Güntekin
- Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technologies (SABITA), Regenerative and Restorative Medicine Research Center (REMER), Clinical Electrophysiology, Neuroimaging and Neuromodulation Lab, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Department of Biophysics, School of Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Tuba Aktürk
- Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technologies (SABITA), Regenerative and Restorative Medicine Research Center (REMER), Clinical Electrophysiology, Neuroimaging and Neuromodulation Lab, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Vocational School, Program of Electroneurophysiology, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
| | | | - Laura Bonanni
- Department of Neuroscience Imaging and Clinical Sciences and CESI, University G d'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Claudio Del Percio
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer", Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Francesca Farina
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Lütfü Hanoğlu
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Sanjeev Kumar
- Adult Neurodevelopmental and Geriatric Psychiatry Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Susanna Lopez
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer", Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Fiona Randall
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Alexander T Sack
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
| | - Fabrizio Stocchi
- Institute for Research and Medical Care, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy
| | - Görsev Yener
- Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Dokuz Eylul University Health Campus, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Ebru Yıldırım
- Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technologies (SABITA), Regenerative and Restorative Medicine Research Center (REMER), Clinical Electrophysiology, Neuroimaging and Neuromodulation Lab, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Vocational School, Program of Electroneurophysiology, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Claudio Babiloni
- Alzheimer's Association, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Institute for Research and Medical Care, Hospital San Raffaele of Cassino, Cassino, Italy
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13
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ElShafei HA, Masson R, Fakche C, Fornoni L, Moulin A, Caclin A, Bidet-Caulet A. Age-related differences in bottom-up and top-down attention: Insights from EEG and MEG. Eur J Neurosci 2022; 55:1215-1231. [PMID: 35112420 PMCID: PMC9303169 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Revised: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Attention operates through top‐down and bottom‐up processes, and a balance between these processes is crucial for daily tasks. Imperilling such balance could explain ageing‐associated attentional problems such as exacerbated distractibility. In this study, we aimed to characterize this enhanced distractibility by investigating the impact of ageing upon event‐related components associated with top‐down and bottom‐up attentional processes. MEG and EEG data were acquired from 14 older and 14 younger healthy adults while performing a task that conjointly evaluates top‐down and bottom‐up attention. Event‐related components were analysed on sensor and source levels. In comparison with the younger group, the older mainly displayed (1) reduced target anticipation processes (reduced CMV), (2) increased early target processing (larger P50 but smaller N1) and (3) increased processing of early distracting sounds (larger N1 but reduced P3a), followed by a (4) prolonged reorientation towards the main task (larger RON). Taken together, our results suggest that the enhanced distractibility in ageing could stem from top‐down deficits, in particular from reduced inhibitory and reorientation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hesham A ElShafei
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behavior, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, EN, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Rémy Masson
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Camille Fakche
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Annie Moulin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Aurélie Bidet-Caulet
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
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14
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Hermiller MS, Dave S, Wert SL, VanHaerents S, Riley M, Weintraub S, Mesulam MM, Voss JL. Evidence from theta-burst stimulation that age-related de-differentiation of the hippocampal network is functional for episodic memory. Neurobiol Aging 2022; 109:145-157. [PMID: 34740076 PMCID: PMC8671378 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.09.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 09/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Episodic memory is supported by hippocampal interactions with a distributed network. Aging is associated with memory decline and network de-differentiation. However, the role of de-differentiation in memory decline has not been directly tested. We reasoned that hippocampal network-targeted stimulation could test these theories, as age-related changes in the network response to stimulation would indicate network reorganization, and corresponding changes in memory would suggest that this reorganization is functional. We compared effects of stimulation on fMRI connectivity and memory in younger versus older adults. Theta-burst network-targeted stimulation of left lateral parietal cortex selectively increased hippocampal network connectivity and modulated memory in younger adults. In contrast, stimulation in older adults increased connectivity throughout the brain, without network selectivity, and did not influence memory. These findings provide evidence that network responses to stimulation are de-differentiated in aging and suggest that age-related de-differentiation is relevant for memory. This manuscript is part of the Special Issue entitled "Cognitive Neuroscience of Healthy and Pathological Aging" edited by Drs. M. N. Rajah, S. Belleville, and R. Cabeza. This article is part of the Virtual Special Issue titled COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF HEALTHY AND PATHOLOGICAL AGING. The full issue can be found on ScienceDirect at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neurobiology-of-aging/special-issue/105379XPWJP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Molly S. Hermiller
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY,Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY,Corresponding author: Molly S. Hermiller, 615 West 131st Street, Studebaker, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10027,
| | - Shruti Dave
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Stephanie L. Wert
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Stephen VanHaerents
- Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Michaela Riley
- Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Sandra Weintraub
- Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - M.-Marsel Mesulam
- Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Joel L. Voss
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
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15
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Lee B, Cai W, Young CB, Yuan R, Ryman S, Kim J, Santini V, Henderson VW, Poston KL, Menon V. Latent brain state dynamics and cognitive flexibility in older adults. Prog Neurobiol 2022; 208:102180. [PMID: 34627994 PMCID: PMC9585912 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive impairment in older adults is a rapidly growing public health concern as the elderly population dramatically grows worldwide. While it is generally assumed that cognitive deficits in older adults are associated with reduced brain flexibility, quantitative evidence has been lacking. Here, we investigate brain flexibility in healthy older adults (ages 60-85) using a novel Bayesian switching dynamical system algorithm and ultrafast temporal resolution (TR = 490 ms) whole-brain fMRI data during performance of a Sternberg working memory task. We identify latent brain states and characterize their dynamic temporal properties, including state transitions, associated with encoding, maintenance, and retrieval. Crucially, we demonstrate that brain inflexibility is associated with slower and more fragmented transitions between latent brain states, and that brain inflexibility mediates the relation between age and cognitive inflexibility. Our study provides a novel neurocomputational framework for investigating latent dynamic circuit processes underlying brain flexibility and cognition in the context of aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Byeongwook Lee
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States.
| | - Weidong Cai
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Christina B Young
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Rui Yuan
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Sephira Ryman
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Jeehyun Kim
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Veronica Santini
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Victor W Henderson
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States; Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Kathleen L Poston
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States; Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States; Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - Vinod Menon
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States; Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States; Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States.
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16
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Schmicker M, Menze I, Schneider C, Taubert M, Zaehle T, Mueller NG. Making the rich richer: Frontoparietal tDCS enhances transfer effects of a single-session distractor inhibition training on working memory in high capacity individuals but reduces them in low capacity individuals. Neuroimage 2021; 242:118438. [PMID: 34332042 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/28/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) performance depends on the ability to extract relevant while inhibiting irrelevant information from entering the WM storage. This distractor inhibition ability can be trained and is known to induce transfer effects on WM performance. Here we asked whether transfer on WM can be boosted by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during a single-session distractor inhibition training. As WM performance is ascribed to the frontoparietal network, in which prefrontal areas are associated with inhibiting distractors and posterior parietal areas with storing information, we placed the anode over the prefrontal and the cathode over the posterior parietal cortex during a single-session distractor inhibition training. This network-oriented stimulation protocol should enhance inhibition processes by shifting the neural activity from posterior to prefrontal regions. WM improved after a single-session distractor inhibition training under verum stimulation but only in subjects with a high WM capacity. In subjects with a low WM capacity, verum tDCS reduced the transfer effects on WM. We assume tDCS to strengthen the frontostriatal pathway in individuals with a high WM capacity leading to efficient inhibition of distractors. In contrast, the cathodal stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex might have hindered usual compensational mechanism in low capacity subjects, i.e. maintaining also irrelevant information in memory. Our results thus stress the need to adjust tDCS protocols to well-founded knowledge about neural networks and individual cognitive differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlen Schmicker
- Neuroprotection Lab, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Inga Menze
- Neuroprotection Lab, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Christine Schneider
- Neuroprotection Lab, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Marco Taubert
- Chair for Training Science, Faculty for Humanities, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Tino Zaehle
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Notger G Mueller
- Neuroprotection Lab, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
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17
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Context Memory Encoding and Retrieval Temporal Dynamics are Modulated by Attention across the Adult Lifespan. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0387-20.2020. [PMID: 33436445 PMCID: PMC7877465 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0387-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2020] [Revised: 11/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Episodic memories are multidimensional, including simple and complex features. How we successful encode and recover these features in time, whether these temporal dynamics are preserved across age, even under conditions of reduced memory performance, and the role of attention on these temporal dynamics is unknown. In the current study, we applied time-resolved multivariate decoding to oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) in an adult lifespan sample to investigate the temporal order of successful encoding and recognition of simple and complex perceptual context features. At encoding, participants studied pictures of black and white objects presented with both color (low-level/simple) and scene (high-level/complex) context features and subsequently made context memory decisions for both features. Attentional demands were manipulated by having participants attend to the relationship between the object and either the color or scene while ignoring the other context feature. Consistent with hierarchical visual perception models, simple visual features (color) were successfully encoded earlier than were complex features (scenes). These features were successfully recognized in the reverse temporal order. Importantly, these temporal dynamics were both dependent on whether these context features were in the focus of one's attention, and preserved across age, despite age-related context memory impairments. These novel results support the idea that episodic memories are encoded and retrieved successively, likely dependent on the input and output pathways of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and attentional influences that bias activity within these pathways across age.
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18
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Hong X, Chen Y, Wang J, Shen Y, Li Q, Zhao B, Guo X, Feng W, Wu W, Li C. Effects of multi-domain cognitive training on working memory retrieval in older adults: behavioral and ERP evidence from a Chinese community study. Sci Rep 2021; 11:1207. [PMID: 33441734 PMCID: PMC7806963 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79784-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) is a fundamental cognitive function that typically declines with age. Previous studies have shown that targeted WM training has the potential to improve WM performance in older adults. In the present study, we investigated whether a multi-domain cognitive training program that was not designed to specifically target WM could improve the behavioral performance and affect the neural activity during WM retrieval in healthy older adults. We assigned healthy older participants (70-78 years old) from a local community into a training group who completed a 3-month multi-domain cognitive training and a control group who only attended health education lectures during the same period. Behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded from participants while performing an untrained delayed match or non-match to category task and a control task at a pre-training baseline session and a post-training follow-up session. Behaviorally, we found that participants in the training group showed a trend toward greater WM performance gains than participants in the control group. Event-related potential (ERP) results suggest that the task-related modulation of P3 during WM retrieval was significantly enhanced at the follow-up session compared with the baseline session, and importantly, this enhancement of P3 modulation was only significant in the training group. Furthermore, no training-related effects were observed for the P2 or N2 component during WM retrieval. These results suggest that the multi-domain cognitive training program that was not designed to specifically target WM is a promising approach to improve WM performance in older adults, and that training-related gains in performance are likely mediated by an enhanced modulation of P3 which might reflect the process of WM updating.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangfei Hong
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China
| | - You Chen
- Shanghai Yangpu District Mental Health Center, Shanghai, 200090, People's Republic of China
| | - Jijun Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.,Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China.,Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuan Shen
- Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200072, People's Republic of China
| | - Qingwei Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200065, People's Republic of China
| | - Binglei Zhao
- Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaoli Guo
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Wei Feng
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 160 Pujian Road, Shanghai, 200127, People's Republic of China.
| | - Wenyuan Wu
- Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200065, People's Republic of China
| | - Chunbo Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China. .,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. .,Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China. .,Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People's Republic of China.
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19
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Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly. Sci Rep 2020; 10:19957. [PMID: 33203888 PMCID: PMC7673120 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75297-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
A decline in visuospatial Working Memory (vWM) is a hallmark of cognitive aging across various tasks, and facing this decline has become the target of several studies. In the current study we tested whether older adults can benefit from task repetition in order to improve their performance in a vWM task. While learning by task repetition has been shown to improve vWM performance in young adulthood, little is known on whether a similar enhancement can be achieved also by the aging population. By combining different behavioral and electrophysiological measures, we investigated whether practicing a specific task (delayed match-to-sample judgement) over four consecutive sessions could improve vWM in healthy aging, and which are the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms modulated by learning. Behavioral data revealed that task repetition boosted performance in older participants, both in terms of sensitivity to change (as revealed by d’ measures) as well as capacity estimate (as measured by k values). At the electrophysiological level, results indicated that only after task repetition both target individuation (as evidenced by the N2pc) and vWM maintenance (as reflected by the CDA) were modulated by target numerosity. Our results suggest that repetition learning is effective in enhancing vWM in aging and acts through modifications at different stages of stimulus processing.
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20
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Warzybok A, Zhilinskaya E, Goykhburg M, Tavartkiladze G, Kollmeier B, Boboshko M. Clinical validation of the Russian Matrix test - effect of hearing loss, age, and noise level. Int J Audiol 2020; 59:930-940. [PMID: 32815756 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2020.1806368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To validate the Russian matrix sentence test (RUMatrix) for the assessment of speech recognition in quiet and in noise in clinical praxis. The effect of hearing impairment, age, and masking-noise level on speech recognition was examined. DESIGN All participants underwent pure tone audiometry, a monosyllabic speech test in quiet, and speech recognition measurements with RUMatrix in quiet (SRTQ) and in noise (SRTN). STUDY SAMPLE One hundred and forty-two listeners divided into four groups: 1. Young normal-hearing listeners, 2. Older normal-hearing listeners, 3. Young hearing-impaired listeners, and 4. Older hearing-impaired listeners. RESULTS Significant differences between groups of listeners were found in the SRTQ and SRTN. A strong correlation between hearing threshold and SRTQ (R2=0.88, p < 0.001) indicates a strong link between speech recognition in quiet and audibility. The pure-tone average explained less variance in SRTN (R2=0.67, p < 0.001), pointing out an additional influence of suprathreshold distortion. A high test sensitivity of 0.99 was found for SRTN and SRTQ. The monosyllabic test had a low sensitivity (0.21), indicating that the test is not suitable for separating normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. CONCLUSIONS RuMatrix is a reliable speech recognition assessment tool with a high sensitivity and validity for the main aspects of hearing impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Warzybok
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | | | - Marina Goykhburg
- National Research Centre for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation, Moscow, Russia
| | - George Tavartkiladze
- National Research Centre for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation, Moscow, Russia
| | - Birger Kollmeier
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.,HörTech gGmbH, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Maria Boboshko
- Pavlov First St. Petersburg State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.,Northwest State Medical University named after Mechnikov, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
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21
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Maniglia MR, Souza AS. Age Differences in the Efficiency of Filtering and Ignoring Distraction in Visual Working Memory. Brain Sci 2020; 10:E556. [PMID: 32824098 PMCID: PMC7464792 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10080556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2020] [Revised: 08/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Healthy aging is associated with decline in the ability to maintain visual information in working memory (WM). We examined whether this decline can be explained by decreases in the ability to filter distraction during encoding or to ignore distraction during memory maintenance. Distraction consisted of irrelevant objects (Exp. 1) or irrelevant features of an object (Exp. 2). In Experiment 1, participants completed a spatial WM task requiring remembering locations on a grid. During encoding or during maintenance, irrelevant distractor positions were presented. In Experiment 2, participants encoded either single-feature (colors or orientations) or multifeature objects (colored triangles) and later reproduced one of these features using a continuous scale. In multifeature blocks, a precue appeared before encoding or a retrocue appeared during memory maintenance indicating with 100% certainty to the to-be-tested feature, thereby enabling filtering and ignoring of the irrelevant (not-cued) feature, respectively. There were no age-related deficits in the efficiency of filtering and ignoring distractor objects (Exp. 1) and of filtering irrelevant features (Exp. 2). Both younger and older adults could not ignore irrelevant features when cued with a retrocue. Overall, our results provide no evidence for an aging deficit in using attention to manage visual WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariana R. Maniglia
- Department of Psychology, Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Science and Literature (FFCLRP), University of São Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto/SP 14040-901, Brazil;
| | - Alessandra S. Souza
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/22, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland
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22
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Lai LY, Frömer R, Festa EK, Heindel WC. Age-related changes in the neural dynamics of bottom-up and top-down processing during visual object recognition: an electrophysiological investigation. Neurobiol Aging 2020; 94:38-49. [PMID: 32562874 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2019] [Revised: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
When recognizing objects in our environments, we rely on both what we see and what we know. While older adults often display increased sensitivity to top-down influences of contextual information during object recognition, the locus of this increased sensitivity remains unresolved. To examine the effects of aging on the neural dynamics of bottom-up and top-down visual processing during rapid object recognition, we probed the differential effects of object perceptual ambiguity and scene context congruity on specific EEG event-related potential components indexing dissociable processes along the visual processing stream. Older adults displayed larger behavioral scene congruity effects than young adults. Older adults' larger visual P2 amplitudes to object perceptual ambiguity (as opposed to the scene congruity P2 effects in young adults) suggest continued resolution of perceptual ambiguity that interfered with scene congruity processing, while post-perceptual semantic integration (as indexed by N400) remained largely intact. These findings suggest that compromised bottom-up perceptual processing in healthy aging leads to an increased involvement of top-down processes to resolve greater perceptual ambiguity during object recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leslie Y Lai
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
| | - Romy Frömer
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
| | - Elena K Festa
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
| | - William C Heindel
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912.
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23
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Influence of age and schooling in written discourse of healthy adults. PSICOLOGIA-REFLEXAO E CRITICA 2020; 33:10. [PMID: 32514630 PMCID: PMC7280393 DOI: 10.1186/s41155-020-00148-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Discourse production is a very complex cognitive task that requires the integration of several linguistic cognitive skills. Socio-demographic factors such as schooling can impact on cognitive tasks. This study investigated the impact of age and schooling in some macrolinguistic and microlinguistic aspects in the written discourse of healthy adults. METHODS Individuals with no previous history of language, hearing, neurological, or psychiatric disorders were asked to write a story based on a figure that showed a "bank robbery." A total of 463 graphic narrative were analyzed. The schooling was stratified into the following three bands: 5 to 8 years, 9 to 11 years and 12 or more, and the age ranged from 19 to 75 years. RESULTS Individuals with high schooling (12 years or more) produced discourses with more information units, more coherent, and cohesive. The oldest group (60 to 75 years) needed more time to finish the written production. CONCLUSION The schooling influences some micro and macrolinguistic aspects in the written discourse production. A higher educational level provided a greater number of words as well as a higher number of information units, and the discourses produced are more coherent and cohesive. The age influenced only the time of discourse production.
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Glick HA, Sharma A. Cortical Neuroplasticity and Cognitive Function in Early-Stage, Mild-Moderate Hearing Loss: Evidence of Neurocognitive Benefit From Hearing Aid Use. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:93. [PMID: 32132893 PMCID: PMC7040174 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2019] [Accepted: 01/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is associated with cognitive decline as well as structural and functional brain changes. However, the mechanisms underlying neurocognitive deficits in ARHL are poorly understood and it is unclear whether clinical treatment with hearing aids may modify neurocognitive outcomes. To address these topics, cortical visual evoked potentials (CVEPs), cognitive function, and speech perception abilities were measured in 28 adults with untreated, mild-moderate ARHL and 13 age-matched normal hearing (NH) controls. The group of adults with ARHL were then fit with bilateral hearing aids and re-evaluated after 6 months of amplification use. At baseline, the ARHL group exhibited more extensive recruitment of auditory, frontal, and pre-frontal cortices during a visual motion processing task, providing evidence of cross-modal re-organization and compensatory cortical neuroplasticity. Further, more extensive cross-modal recruitment of the right auditory cortex was associated with greater degree of hearing loss, poorer speech perception in noise, and worse cognitive function. Following clinical treatment with hearing aids, a reversal in cross-modal re-organization of auditory cortex by vision was observed in the ARHL group, coinciding with gains in speech perception and cognitive performance. Thus, beyond the known benefits of hearing aid use on communication, outcomes from this study provide evidence that clinical intervention with well-fit amplification may promote more typical cortical organization and functioning and provide cognitive benefit.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anu Sharma
- Brain and Behavior Laboratory, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Science, Center for Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
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Age-related differences in the temporal dynamics of spectral power during memory encoding. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0227274. [PMID: 31945080 PMCID: PMC6964832 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined oscillatory power in electroencephalographic recordings obtained while younger (18-30 years) and older (60+ years) adults studied lists of words for later recall. Power changed in a highly consistent way from word-to-word across the study period. Above 14 Hz, there were virtually no age differences in these neural gradients. But gradients below 14 Hz reliably discriminated between age groups. Older adults with the best memory performance showed the largest departures from the younger adult pattern of neural activity. These results suggest that age differences in the dynamics of neural activity across an encoding period reflect changes in cognitive processing that may compensate for age-related decline.
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Jaworska K, Yi F, Ince RAA, van Rijsbergen NJ, Schyns PG, Rousselet GA. Healthy aging delays the neural processing of face features relevant for behavior by 40 ms. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 41:1212-1225. [PMID: 31782861 PMCID: PMC7268067 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24869] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2019] [Revised: 10/16/2019] [Accepted: 11/10/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Fast and accurate face processing is critical for everyday social interactions, but it declines and becomes delayed with age, as measured by both neural and behavioral responses. Here, we addressed the critical challenge of understanding how aging changes neural information processing mechanisms to delay behavior. Young (20-36 years) and older (60-86 years) adults performed the basic social interaction task of detecting a face versus noise while we recorded their electroencephalogram (EEG). In each participant, using a new information theoretic framework we reconstructed the features supporting face detection behavior, and also where, when and how EEG activity represents them. We found that occipital-temporal pathway activity dynamically represents the eyes of the face images for behavior ~170 ms poststimulus, with a 40 ms delay in older adults that underlies their 200 ms behavioral deficit of slower reaction times. Our results therefore demonstrate how aging can change neural information processing mechanisms that underlie behavioral slow down.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katarzyna Jaworska
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Fei Yi
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Robin A A Ince
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | | | - Philippe G Schyns
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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Mental workload of young and older adults gauged with ERPs and spectral power during N-Back task performance. Biol Psychol 2019; 146:107726. [PMID: 31276755 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2018] [Revised: 01/21/2019] [Accepted: 06/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Mental workload has been shown to correlate with alpha and theta band power but only few EEG studies focused on the relation between these bands and Event Related Potentials (ERPs), more specifically the P300 component. We report on an EEG study on mental workload where not only young but also older adults performed an N-Back task. Participants watched a sequence of visual pictures and indicated whether the current picture was the same as the one shown N pictures before. We considered N = 4 difficulty levels and analyzed the relation between these and P300 amplitude and theta and alpha band power, and also examined the effect of age, level of education, work activities, and task accuracy. Our results revealed a decrease in P300 amplitude and alpha band activity for higher difficulty levels for young adults in the parietal region. However, for older adults, fatigue played a more important role than we could anticipate as the alpha band power increased for the highest task difficulty level, and since performance accuracy also decreased, it could even be a sign of task disengagement. Beside alpha band, theta band activity showed a positive correlation with task difficulty level for both young and older adults. Additionally, we found higher P300 amplitudes for young adults compared to older adults, in line with their higher performance accuracies and lower reaction times. In conclusion, we showed that P300 amplitude and alpha and theta bands power provide complementary information for judging mental workload during N-Back performance for young and older subjects and for detecting mental fatigue and task disengagement.
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Giller F, Beste C. Effects of aging on sequential cognitive flexibility are associated with fronto-parietal processing deficits. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:2343-2355. [PMID: 31218393 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01910-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 06/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Albeit cognitive flexibility is well known to decline in aging, it has not been considered that this ability often requires sequential task control. That is, one may re-use tasks that have previously been abandoned in favor of another task. It is unclear whether sequential cognitive flexibility is affected in aging and what neurophysiological mechanisms and functional neuroanatomical structures are associated with these effects. We examined this question in a system neurophysiological study using EEG and source localization in healthy and elderly adults. We show that elderly people reveal deficient sequential cognitive flexibility. Elderly people encounter increased costs to overcome the inhibition of the lately abandoned task set that becomes relevant again and needs to be re-used. The neurophysiological (EEG) data show that differences in sequential cognitive flexibility between young and elderly people emerge as a consequence of two independent, dysfunctional processes: (i) the ability to suppress task-irrelevant information and (ii) the ability to re-implement a previously abandoned task set during response selection. These independent processes were associated with activation differences in inferior frontal and inferior parietal regions. The study reveals a new facet of cognitive flexibility dysfunctions in healthy elderlies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Franziska Giller
- Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Germany, Schubertstrasse 42, 01309, Dresden, Germany
| | - Christian Beste
- Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Germany, Schubertstrasse 42, 01309, Dresden, Germany.
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Noguera C, Fernández S, Álvarez D, Carmona E, Marí-Beffa P, Ortells JJ. The implementation of expectancy-based strategic processes is delayed in normal aging. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0214322. [PMID: 30908549 PMCID: PMC6433268 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2018] [Accepted: 03/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The present research examined if the time needed to implement expectancy-based strategic processes is different in younger and healthy older adults. In four experiments participants from both age groups performed different strategic priming tasks. These included a greater proportion of incongruent (or unrelated; 80%) than of congruent (or related; 20%) trials. With this procedure performance is worse for congruent (less frequent) than for incongruent (more frequent) trials, thus demonstrating that the relative frequency information can be used to predict the upcoming target. To explore the time course of these expectancy-based effects, the prime-target SOA was manipulated across experiments through a range of intervals: 400, 1000 and 2000 ms. Participants also performed a change localization and an antisaccade task to assess their working memory and attention control capacities. The results showed that increases in age were associated with (a) a slower processing-speed, (b) a decline in WM capacity, and (c) a decreased capacity for attentional control. The latter was evidenced by a disproportionate deterioration of performance in the antisaccade trials compared to the prosaccade ones in the older group. Results from the priming tasks showed a delay in the implementation of expectancies in older adults. Whereas younger participants showed strategic effects already at 1000 ms, older participants consistently failed to show expectancy-based priming during the same interval. Importantly, these effects appeared later at 2000 ms, being similar in magnitude to those by the younger participants and unaffected by task practice. The present findings demonstrate that the ability to implement expectancy-based strategies is slowed down in normal aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmen Noguera
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | | | - Dolores Álvarez
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | - Encarna Carmona
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | - Paloma Marí-Beffa
- School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom
| | - Juan J Ortells
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
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Abstract
Healthy aging is associated with numerous deficits in cognitive function, which have been attributed to changes within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This chapter summarizes some of the most prominent cognitive changes associated with age-related alterations in the anatomy and physiology of the PFC. Specifically, aging of the PFC results in deficient aspects of cognitive control, including sustained attention, selective attention, inhibitory control, working memory, and multitasking abilities. Yet, not all cognitive functions associated with the PFC exhibit age-related declines, such as arithmetic, comprehension, emotion perception, and emotional control. Moreover, not all older adults exhibit declines in cognition. Multiple life-course and lifestyle factors, as well as genetics, play a role in the trajectory of cognitive performance across the life span. Thus many adults retain cognitive function well into advanced age. Moreover, the brain remains plastic throughout life and there is increasing evidence that most age-related declines in cognition can be remediated by various methods such as physical exercise, cognitive training, or noninvasive brain stimulation. Overall, because cognitive aging is associated with numerous life-course and lifestyle factors, successful aging likely begins in early life, while maintaining cognition or remediating declines is a life-long process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theodore P Zanto
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; Neuroscape, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Adam Gazzaley
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; Neuroscape, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
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Hanley CJ, Tales A. Anodal tDCS improves attentional control in older adults. Exp Gerontol 2018; 115:88-95. [PMID: 30500351 DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2018] [Revised: 10/12/2018] [Accepted: 11/23/2018] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) facilitates cognitive enhancement by directly increasing neuroplasticity, and has shown promising results as an external intervention to attenuate age-related cognitive decline. However, stimulation protocols have failed to account for age-associated changes in brain structure and the present literature omits investigation of attentional control, despite the occurrence of substantial inhibitory processing deficits with age. To provide new insight into the benefits of tDCS, the objective of this study was to develop an age-optimised stimulation protocol in which key parameters (amplitude, duration, and electrode configuration) were selected in accordance with knowledge of stimulation effects, specific to the ageing brain. Participants (mean age 66.5 years) completed three sessions of double-blind, anodal or sham stimulation, in conjunction with a novel task switching paradigm, which was designed to reflect the complexities of simultaneously monitoring and updating stimulus representations. The results show that those who had anodal tDCS exhibited an acute, post-stimulation increase in task switching speed (p < .01, d = 1.36). Although the sham group was subject to the same task exposure, only the anodal stimulation group experienced a performance gain, thus emphasising the efficacy of active brain stimulation. For the first time, this study demonstrates the utility of stimulation protocols tailored specifically for use with older adults, targeted towards the modulation of attentional control. This finding has critical implications for cognitive health and encourages the use of age-optimised tDCS as a viable method for enhancing executive function in later life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire J Hanley
- Department of Psychology, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, UK.
| | - Andrea Tales
- The Centre for Innovative Ageing, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, UK
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Pergher V, Wittevrongel B, Tournoy J, Schoenmakers B, Van Hulle MM. N-back training and transfer effects revealed by behavioral responses and EEG. Brain Behav 2018; 8:e01136. [PMID: 30350357 PMCID: PMC6236237 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2017] [Revised: 09/13/2018] [Accepted: 09/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Cognitive function performance decreases in older individuals compared to young adults. To curb this decline, cognitive training is applied, but it is not clear whether it improves only the trained task or also other cognitive functions. To investigate this, we considered an N-back working memory (WM) training task and verified whether it improves both trained WM and untrained cognitive functions. METHODS As EEG studies have noted task difficulty and age-related changes in time-locked EEG responses, called event-related potentials (ERPs), we focused on the relation between the P300 ERP component, task difficulty level, and behavior response accuracy and reaction time (RT) in young and older healthy adults. We used two groups of young and older healthy participants to assess the effect of N-back training: cognitive training group (CTG) and passive control group (PCG). Before and after training, cognitive tests were administered to both groups to evaluate transfer effects. RESULTS Despite the observed age-related differences in the P300 ERP component and in terms of RT and accuracy, our findings demonstrate a stronger improvement in the trained task for older CTGs compared to younger CTGs, larger near- and far-transfer effect to WM and fluid intelligence for both younger and older CTGs, and a far-transfer effect to attention but only for older adults. Significant differences in response accuracy were shown between young and older subjects in spatial memory and attention tests. CONCLUSION The application of a WM training is a promising tool for both healthy adults, and in particular for older subjects, as it showed physiological and behavioral differences in cognitive plasticity across life span and evidence of benefits in the trained task and near-/far-transfer effects to other cognitive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Pergher
- Laboratory for Neuro- & Psychophysiology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Benjamin Wittevrongel
- Laboratory for Neuro- & Psychophysiology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jos Tournoy
- Department of Chronic Diseases, Metabolism and Ageing, University Hospital Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Marc M Van Hulle
- Laboratory for Neuro- & Psychophysiology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Differential Impact of Interference on Internally- and Externally-Directed Attention. Sci Rep 2018; 8:2498. [PMID: 29410407 PMCID: PMC5802789 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20498-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2017] [Accepted: 01/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention can be oriented externally to the environment or internally to the mind, and can be derailed by interference from irrelevant information originating from either external or internal sources. However, few studies have explored the nature and underlying mechanisms of the interaction between different attentional orientations and different sources of interference. We investigated how externally- and internally-directed attention was impacted by external distraction, how this modulated internal distraction, and whether these interactions were affected by healthy aging. Healthy younger and older adults performed both an externally-oriented visual detection task and an internally-oriented mental rotation task, performed with and without auditory sound delivered through headphones. We found that the addition of auditory sound induced a significant decrease in task performance in both younger and older adults on the visual discrimination task, and this was accompanied by a shift in the type of distractions reported (from internal to external). On the internally-oriented task, auditory sound only affected performance in older adults. These results suggest that the impact of external distractions differentially impacts performance on tasks with internal, as opposed to external, attentional orientations. Further, internal distractibility is affected by the presence of external sound and increased suppression of internal distraction.
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Boboshko MY, Berdnikova IP, Garbaruk ES, Salakhbekov MA, Mal'tseva NV. [The influence of central auditory processing on the intelligibility of the speech in the patients presenting with hearing impairment]. Vestn Otorinolaringol 2018; 83:4-8. [PMID: 29697645 DOI: 10.17116/otorino20188324-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The objective of the present study was to evaluate to what degree the function of the central auditory pathways influences the intelligibility of the speech in the patients suffering from the sensorineural loss of hearing (SNLH). The study included a total of 20 patients at the age varying from 31 to 80 years presenting with moderate to moderately severe symmetrical SNLN. All the patients were permanent hearing aid users. They underwent the standard audiological examination including pure-tone threshold and suprathreshold audimetries together with impedancemetry, the evaluation of the functional ability of the central auditory pathways with special reference to temporal resolution and differential frequency sensitivity, binaural integration, and the ability to distinguish a sound stimulus against the background noise. It has been found that the impaired intelligibility of the speech and the decreased efficiency of the hearing aids in the patients presenting with SNLH were attributable to the central auditory pathway disorders detected in 50% of the participants in the study. The strong correlation between the results of detection of the stimulus under conditions of tonal signal interference, the binaural integration test, and intelligibility of the speech in the users of hearing aids was documented.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Yu Boboshko
- Laboratory of Hearing and Speech, Academician I.P. Pavlov First Saint-Petersburg State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 197022; Otorhinolaryngology Department, I.I. Mechnikov North-Western State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 191015
| | - I P Berdnikova
- Laboratory of Hearing and Speech, Academician I.P. Pavlov First Saint-Petersburg State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 197022
| | - E S Garbaruk
- Laboratory of Hearing and Speech, Academician I.P. Pavlov First Saint-Petersburg State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 197022
| | - M A Salakhbekov
- Otorhinolaryngology Department, I.I. Mechnikov North-Western State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 191015
| | - N V Mal'tseva
- Laboratory of Hearing and Speech, Academician I.P. Pavlov First Saint-Petersburg State Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 197022
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Requiring collaboration: Hippocampal-prefrontal networks needed in spatial working memory and ageing. A multivariate analysis approach. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2017; 140:33-42. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2017.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2016] [Accepted: 02/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Houston JR, Bennett IJ, Allen PA, Madden DJ. Visual Acuity does not Moderate Effect Sizes of Higher-Level Cognitive Tasks. Exp Aging Res 2017; 42:221-63. [PMID: 27070044 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2016.1156964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT Declining visual capacities in older adults have been posited as a driving force behind adult age differences in higher-order cognitive functions (e.g., the "common cause" hypothesis of Lindenberger & Baltes, 1994, Psychology and Aging, 9, 339-355). McGowan, Patterson, and Jordan (2013, Experimental Aging Research, 39, 70-79) also found that a surprisingly large number of published cognitive aging studies failed to include adequate measures of visual acuity. However, a recent meta-analysis of three studies (La Fleur and Salthouse, 2014, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1202-1208) failed to find evidence that visual acuity moderated or mediated age differences in higher-level cognitive processes. In order to provide a more extensive test of whether visual acuity moderates age differences in higher-level cognitive processes, we conducted a more extensive meta-analysis of topic. METHODS Using results from 456 studies, we calculated effect sizes for the main effect of age across four cognitive domains (attention, executive function, memory, and perception/language) separately for five levels of visual acuity criteria (no criteria, undisclosed criteria, self-reported acuity, 20/80-20/31, and 20/30 or better). RESULTS As expected, age had a significant effect on each cognitive domain. However, these age effects did not further differ as a function of visual acuity criteria. CONCLUSION The current meta-analytic, cross-sectional results suggest that visual acuity is not significantly related to age group differences in higher-level cognitive performance-thereby replicating La Fleur and Salthouse (2014). Further efforts are needed to determine whether other measures of visual functioning (e.g., contrast sensitivity, luminance) affect age differences in cognitive functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- James R Houston
- a Department of Psychology , The University of Akron , Akron , Ohio , USA
| | - Ilana J Bennett
- b Department of Neurobiology and Behavior , University of California , Irvine , Irvine California , USA
| | - Philip A Allen
- a Department of Psychology , The University of Akron , Akron , Ohio , USA
| | - David J Madden
- c Brain Imaging and Analysis Center , Duke University Medical Center , Durham , North Carolina , USA
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Padgaonkar NA, Zanto TP, Bollinger J, Gazzaley A. Predictive cues and age-related declines in working memory performance. Neurobiol Aging 2016; 49:31-39. [PMID: 27736673 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2016] [Revised: 09/02/2016] [Accepted: 09/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Older adults, compared to younger adults, do not benefit from predictive information regarding either what type of stimuli they will see or when to expect them, yet it is unclear whether older adults benefit when given both types of predictive information. Here, electroencephalogram recordings of older (aged 62-87 years) and younger (aged 20-32 years) adults were recorded during a working memory task. Each trial contained 2 faces and 2 scenes presented sequentially, followed by a 5-second delay and a probe stimulus. Participants were told what stimuli to remember/ignore and when they would appear. Predictive cues enabled older adults to remember stimuli as accurately as younger adults, although response times were significantly slower, even when corrected for general age-related slowing. Previously observed reductions in P1/N1 amplitude and latency suppression to irrelevant stimuli were not seen. Rather, older adults exhibited lowered P3 amplitudes to relevant stimuli; those with the greatest declines yielded the lowest accuracy and slowest response times. This shows that predictive information can help maintain accuracy, although not response times, which correspond to age-related declines in neural enhancement to relevant stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Namita A Padgaonkar
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Theodore P Zanto
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Jacob Bollinger
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Adam Gazzaley
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Departments of Physiology & Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
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Pagano S, Fait E, Brignani D, Mazza V. Object individuation and compensation in healthy aging. Neurobiol Aging 2016; 40:145-154. [PMID: 26973114 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2015] [Revised: 01/18/2016] [Accepted: 01/23/2016] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Theories on neural compensation suggest that aged participants overactivate the brain areas involved in a task to compensate for the age-related decline. In this electrophysiological study, we investigated the temporal locus of neural overactivation in aging during multiple target processing. We measured performance and three event-related brain potential responses (N1, N2pc, and contralateral delay activity) in young and old adults, while they enumerated a variable number (1-4) of targets presented in an easy (distractor absent) or difficult (distractor present) condition. The main results indicated that although N2pc (∼200 ms) increased in amplitude in the distractor-present condition in the young group, no modulation occurred for the old group. Old participants were associated with larger N2pc amplitudes than young participants in the distractor-absent condition, where both groups had comparable levels of accuracy. These effects were not present for N1 and contralateral delay activity. Overall, the data suggest that in enumeration, aging is associated with compensatory effects that rely on the selection mechanism responsible for target individuation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Pagano
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy.
| | - Elisa Fait
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy
| | - Debora Brignani
- IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
| | - Veronica Mazza
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy; IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy; Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy
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Mazza V, Brignani D. Electrophysiological Advances on Multiple Object Processing in Aging. Front Aging Neurosci 2016; 8:46. [PMID: 26973520 PMCID: PMC4773734 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2016.00046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2015] [Accepted: 02/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
EEG research conducted in the past 5 years on multiple object processing has begun to define how the aging brain tracks the numerosity of the objects presented in the visual field for different goals. We review the recent EEG findings in healthy older individuals (age range: 65-75 years approximately) on perceptual, attentional and memory mechanisms-reflected in the N1, N2pc and contralateral delayed activity (CDA) components of the EEG, respectively-during the execution of a variety of cognitive tasks requiring simultaneous processing of multiple elements. The findings point to multiple loci of neural changes in multi-object analysis, and suggest the involvement of early perceptual mechanisms, attentive individuation and working memory (WM) operations in the neural and cognitive modification due to aging. However, the findings do not simply reflect early impairments with a cascade effect over subsequent stages of stimulus processing, but in fact highlight interesting dissociations between the effects occurring at the various stages of stimulus processing. Finally, the results on older adults indicate the occurrence of neural overactivation in association to good levels of performance in easy perceptual contexts, thus providing some hints on the existence of compensatory phenomena that are associated with the functioning of early perceptual mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Mazza
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of TrentoRovereto, Italy; IRCSS Centro San Giovanni di Dio, FatebenefratelliBrescia, Italy
| | - Debora Brignani
- IRCSS Centro San Giovanni di Dio, Fatebenefratelli Brescia, Italy
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40
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Mok RM, Myers NE, Wallis G, Nobre AC. Behavioral and Neural Markers of Flexible Attention over Working Memory in Aging. Cereb Cortex 2016; 26:1831-42. [PMID: 26865653 PMCID: PMC4785959 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) declines as we age and, because of its fundamental role in higher order cognition, this can have highly deleterious effects in daily life. We investigated whether older individuals benefit from flexible orienting of attention within WM to mitigate cognitive decline. We measured magnetoencephalography (MEG) in older adults performing a WM precision task with cues during the maintenance period that retroactively predicted the location of the relevant items for performance (retro-cues). WM performance of older adults significantly benefitted from retro-cues. Whereas WM maintenance declined with age, retro-cues conferred strong attentional benefits. A model-based analysis revealed an increase in the probability of recalling the target, a lowered probability of retrieving incorrect items or guessing, and an improvement in memory precision. MEG recordings showed that retro-cues induced a transient lateralization of alpha (8-14 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) oscillatory power. Interestingly, shorter durations of alpha/beta lateralization following retro-cues predicted larger cueing benefits, reinforcing recent ideas about the dynamic nature of access to WM representations. Our results suggest that older adults retain flexible control over WM, but individual differences in control correspond to differences in neural dynamics, possibly reflecting the degree of preservation of control in healthy aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert M Mok
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Nicholas E Myers
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - George Wallis
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Anna Christina Nobre
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
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Wilsch A, Obleser J. What works in auditory working memory? A neural oscillations perspective. Brain Res 2015; 1640:193-207. [PMID: 26556773 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.10.054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2015] [Revised: 10/28/2015] [Accepted: 10/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Working memory is a limited resource: brains can only maintain small amounts of sensory input (memory load) over a brief period of time (memory decay). The dynamics of slow neural oscillations as recorded using magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) provide a window into the neural mechanics of these limitations. Especially oscillations in the alpha range (8-13Hz) are a sensitive marker for memory load. Moreover, according to current models, the resultant working memory load is determined by the relative noise in the neural representation of maintained information. The auditory domain allows memory researchers to apply and test the concept of noise quite literally: Employing degraded stimulus acoustics increases memory load and, at the same time, allows assessing the cognitive resources required to process speech in noise in an ecologically valid and clinically relevant way. The present review first summarizes recent findings on neural oscillations, especially alpha power, and how they reflect memory load and memory decay in auditory working memory. The focus is specifically on memory load resulting from acoustic degradation. These findings are then contrasted with contextual factors that benefit neural as well as behavioral markers of memory performance, by reducing representational noise. We end on discussing the functional role of alpha power in auditory working memory and suggest extensions of the current methodological toolkit. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Wilsch
- Max Planck Research Group "Auditory Cognition", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Max Planck Research Group "Auditory Cognition", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
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Chuang LY, Huang CJ, Hung TM. Effects of attentional training on visual attention to emotional stimuli in archers: A preliminary investigation. Int J Psychophysiol 2015; 98:448-54. [PMID: 26348259 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2015] [Revised: 08/30/2015] [Accepted: 09/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Attentional training has been used to modify attentional bias patterns in anxious individuals. This study examined the effect of attentional training on anxious archers' information processing using electrophysiological indices. Eighteen experienced archers with relatively high levels of competitive anxiety were assigned to either a training group or a control group. The training group received a 6-week attentional training protocol that was designed to switch attention away from threats, whereas the control group participated in a placebo training. The results revealed a smaller P1 difference wave for the training group in the posttest compared with pretest, whereas no change in N1 amplitude was found after training. The P1 difference wave finding suggests that more similar visual attentional resources were invested in probes replacing positive cues compared with probes replacing threatening cues after attentional bias training. In particular, archers who accepted training deployed similar attention resources to threatening and positive stimuli but those who accepted sham training avoided attention from threatening stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lan-Ya Chuang
- Department of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd. Da an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Chung-Ju Huang
- Graduate Institute of Sport Pedagogy, University of Taipei, No. 101, Sec. 2, Zhongcheng Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei City 111, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Tsung-Min Hung
- Department of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd. Da an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan, ROC.
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Pinal D, Zurrón M, Díaz F. Age-related changes in brain activity are specific for high order cognitive processes during successful encoding of information in working memory. Front Aging Neurosci 2015; 7:75. [PMID: 26029099 PMCID: PMC4426757 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2014] [Accepted: 04/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Memory capacity suffers an age-related decline, which is supposed to be due to a generalized slowing of processing speed and to a reduced availability of processing resources. Information encoding in memory has been demonstrated to be very sensitive to age-related changes, especially when carried out through self-initiated strategies or under high cognitive demands. However, most event-related potentials (ERP) research on age-related changes in working memory (WM) has used tasks that preclude distinction between age-related changes in encoding and retrieval processes. Here, we used ERP recording and a delayed match to sample (DMS) task with two levels of memory load to assess age-related changes in electrical brain activity in young and old adults during successful information encoding in WM. Age-related decline was reflected in lower accuracy rates and longer reaction times in the DMS task. Beside, only old adults presented lower accuracy rates under high than low memory load conditions. However, effects of memory load on brain activity were independent of age and may indicate an increased need of processing after stimulus classification as reflected in larger mean voltages in high than low load conditions between 550 and 1000 ms post-stimulus for young and old adults. Regarding age-related effects on brain activity, results also revealed smaller P2 and P300 amplitudes that may signal the existence of an age dependent reduction in the processing resources available for stimulus evaluation and categorization. Additionally, P2 and N2 latencies were longer in old than in young participants. Furthermore, longer N2 latencies were related to greater accuracy rates on the DMS task, especially in old adults. These results suggest that age-related slowing of processing speed may be specific for target stimulus analysis and evaluation processes. Thus, old adults seem to improve their performance the longer they take to evaluate the stimulus they encode in visual WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Pinal
- Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Group GI-1807-USC, Facultade de Psicoloxia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Montserrat Zurrón
- Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Group GI-1807-USC, Facultade de Psicoloxia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Fernando Díaz
- Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Group GI-1807-USC, Facultade de Psicoloxia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, Spain
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Zalar B, Martin T, Kavcic V. Cortical configuration by stimulus onset visual evoked potentials (SO-VEPs) predicts performance on a motion direction discrimination task. Int J Psychophysiol 2015; 96:125-33. [PMID: 25889693 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2014] [Revised: 04/07/2015] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The slowing of information processing, a hallmark of cognitive aging, has several origins. Previously we reported that in a motion direction discrimination task, older as compared to younger participants showed prolonged non-decision time, an index of an early perceptual stage, while in motion onset visual evoked potentials (MO-VEPs) the P1 component was enhanced and N2 was diminished. We did not find any significant correlations between behavioral and MO-VEP measures. Here, we investigated the role of age in encoding and perceptual processing of stimulus onset visually evoked potentials (SO-VEPs). Twelve healthy adults (age<55years) and 19 elderly (age>55years) performed a motion direction discrimination task during EEG recording. Prior to motion, the stimulus consisted of a static cloud of white dots on a black background. As expected, SO-VEPs evoked well defined P1, N1, and P2 components. Elderly participants as compared to young participants showed increased P1 amplitude while their P2 amplitude was reduced. In addition elderly participants showed increased latencies for P1 and N1 components. Contrary to the findings with MO-VEPs, SO-VEP parameters were significant predictors of average response times and diffusion model parameters. Our electrophysiological results support the notion that slowing of information processing in older adults starts at the very beginning of encoding in visual cortical processing, most likely in striate and extrastriate visual cortices. More importantly, the earliest SO-VEP components, possibly reflecting configuration of visual cortices and encoding processes, predict subsequent prolonging and tardiness of perceptual and higher-level cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bojan Zalar
- Biomedical Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Tim Martin
- Department of Psychology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA
| | - Voyko Kavcic
- Biomedical Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
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45
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Mott KK, Alperin BR, Fox AM, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR. The impact of executive capacity and age on mechanisms underlying multidimensional feature selection. Neuropsychologia 2015; 70:30-42. [PMID: 25660207 PMCID: PMC4402256 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2014] [Revised: 01/28/2015] [Accepted: 02/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
This study examined the role of executive capacity (EC) and aging in multidimensional feature selection. ERPs were recorded from healthy young and old adults of either high or average EC based on neuropsychological testing. Participants completed a color selective attention task in which they responded to target letter-forms in a specified color (attend condition) while ignoring letter-forms in a different color (ignore condition). Two selection negativity (SN) components were computed: the SN(Color) (attend-ignore), indexing early color selection, and the SN(Letter) (targets-standards), indexing early letter-form selection. High EC subjects exhibited self-terminating feature selection; the processing of one feature type was reduced if information from the other feature type suggested the stimulus did not contain the task-relevant feature. In contrast, average EC subjects exhaustively selected all features of a stimulus. The self-terminating approach was associated with better task accuracy. Higher EC was also linked to stronger early selection of target letter-forms, but did not modulate the seemingly less demanding task of color selection. Mechanisms utilized for multidimensional feature selection appear to be consistent across the lifespan, although there was age-related slowing of processing speed for early selection of letter features. We conclude that EC is a critical determinant of how multidimensional feature processing is carried out.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine K Mott
- Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Brittany R Alperin
- Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Anne M Fox
- Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Phillip J Holcomb
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, 490 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
| | - Kirk R Daffner
- Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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46
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Barabash ML, Petkoski S, Stefanovska A. Homogeneous delays in the Kuramoto model with time-variable parameters. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2014; 90:052903. [PMID: 25493854 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.90.052903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
The Kuramoto model with time-varying parameters has been extended to consider the effect of delay in couplings. A collective dynamics arises from the interplay between the time scales of the original system, the external forcing, and the delays. This complex low-dimensional dynamics is described, uncovering an echo effect near the synchronization threshold. Hence, the delayed couplings substantially alter the dynamics of what is an open system and should be taken into consideration, depending on the ensemble's evolution time scale. We also introduce a first-harmonic approximation for the evolution of the mean field under harmonic forcing, valid for any delays and forcing of a coherent population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miraslau L Barabash
- Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Physics Faculty, Belarusian State University, Nezavisimosty Av., 4, 220030, Minsk, Belarus
| | - Spase Petkoski
- Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB, United Kingdom
| | - Aneta Stefanovska
- Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB, United Kingdom
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Guerreiro MJS, Anguera JA, Mishra J, Van Gerven PWM, Gazzaley A. Age-equivalent top-down modulation during cross-modal selective attention. J Cogn Neurosci 2014; 26:2827-39. [PMID: 25010198 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Selective attention involves top-down modulation of sensory cortical areas, such that responses to relevant information are enhanced whereas responses to irrelevant information are suppressed. Suppression of irrelevant information, unlike enhancement of relevant information, has been shown to be deficient in aging. Although these attentional mechanisms have been well characterized within the visual modality, little is known about these mechanisms when attention is selectively allocated across sensory modalities. The present EEG study addressed this issue by testing younger and older participants in three different tasks: Participants attended to the visual modality and ignored the auditory modality, attended to the auditory modality and ignored the visual modality, or passively perceived information presented through either modality. We found overall modulation of visual and auditory processing during cross-modal selective attention in both age groups. Top-down modulation of visual processing was observed as a trend toward enhancement of visual information in the setting of auditory distraction, but no significant suppression of visual distraction when auditory information was relevant. Top-down modulation of auditory processing, on the other hand, was observed as suppression of auditory distraction when visual stimuli were relevant, but no significant enhancement of auditory information in the setting of visual distraction. In addition, greater visual enhancement was associated with better recognition of relevant visual information, and greater auditory distractor suppression was associated with a better ability to ignore auditory distraction. There were no age differences in these effects, suggesting that when relevant and irrelevant information are presented through different sensory modalities, selective attention remains intact in older age.
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48
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Zhuravleva TY, Alperin BR, Haring AE, Rentz DM, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR. Age-related decline in bottom-up processing and selective attention in the very old. J Clin Neurophysiol 2014; 31:261-71. [PMID: 24887611 PMCID: PMC4048878 DOI: 10.1097/wnp.0000000000000056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research demonstrating age-related deficits in selective attention have not included old-old adults, an increasingly important group to study. The current investigation compared event-related potentials in 15 young-old (65-79 years old) and 23 old-old (80-99 years old) subjects during a color-selective attention task. Subjects responded to target letters in a specified color (Attend) while ignoring letters in a different color (Ignore) under both low and high loads. There were no group differences in visual acuity, accuracy, reaction time, or latency of early event-related potential components. The old-old group showed a disruption in bottom-up processing, indexed by a substantially diminished posterior N1 (smaller amplitude). They also demonstrated markedly decreased modulation of bottom-up processing based on selected visual features, indexed by the posterior selection negativity (SN), with similar attenuation under both loads. In contrast, there were no group differences in frontally mediated attentional selection, measured by the anterior selection positivity (SP). There was a robust inverse relationship between the size of the SN and SP (the smaller the SN, the larger the SP), which may represent an anteriorly supported compensatory mechanism. In the absence of a decline in top-down modulation indexed by the SP, the diminished SN may reflect age-related degradation of early bottom-up visual processing in old-old adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatyana Y Zhuravleva
- *Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; and †Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.A
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Macpherson HN, White DJ, Ellis KA, Stough C, Camfield D, Silberstein R, Pipingas A. Age-related changes to the neural correlates of working memory which emerge after midlife. Front Aging Neurosci 2014; 6:70. [PMID: 24795625 PMCID: PMC3997023 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2013] [Accepted: 03/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has indicated that the neural processes which underlie working memory change with age. Both age-related increases and decreases to cortical activity have been reported. This study investigated which stages of working memory are most vulnerable to age-related changes after midlife. To do this we examined age-differences in the 13 Hz steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) associated with a spatial working memory delayed response task. Participants were 130 healthy adults separated into a midlife (40–60 years) and an older group (61–82 years). Relative to the midlife group, older adults demonstrated greater bilateral frontal activity during encoding and this pattern of activity was related to better working memory performance. In contrast, evidence of age-related under activation was identified over left frontal regions during retrieval. Findings from this study suggest that after midlife, under-activation of frontal regions during retrieval contributes to age-related decline in working memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen N Macpherson
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - David J White
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - Kathryn A Ellis
- Department of Psychiatry, Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, St. Vincent's Aged Psychiatry Service, St. Georges Hospital, University of Melbourne Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Con Stough
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - David Camfield
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - Richard Silberstein
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
| | - Andrew Pipingas
- Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
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50
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Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults. Nature 2013; 501:97-101. [PMID: 24005416 PMCID: PMC3983066 DOI: 10.1038/nature12486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 775] [Impact Index Per Article: 70.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2013] [Accepted: 07/18/2013] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
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