Predictive knowledge of stimulus relevance does not influence top-down suppression of irrelevant information in older adults

Aging impairs reactive attentional control but not proactive distractor inhibition

Older adults tend to be more prone to distraction compared with young adults, and this age-related deficit has been attributed to a deficiency in inhibitory processing. However, recent findings challenge the notion that aging leads to global impairments in inhibition. To reconcile these mixed findings, we investigated how aging modulates multiple mechanisms of attentional control by tracking the timing and direction of eye movements. When engaged in feature-search mode and proactive distractor suppression, older adults made fewer first fixations to the target but inhibited the task-irrelevant salient distractor as effectively as did young adults. However, when engaged in singleton-search mode and required to reactively disengage from the distractor, older adults made significantly more first saccades toward the task-irrelevant salient distractor and showed increased fixation times in orienting to the target, longer dwell times on incorrect saccades, and increased saccadic reaction times compared with young adults. Our findings reveal that aging differently impairs attentional control depending on whether visual search requires proactive distractor suppression or reactive distractor disengagement. Furthermore, our oculomotor measures reveal both age-related deficits and age equivalence in various mechanisms of attention, including goal-directed orienting, selection history, disengagement, and distractor inhibition. These findings help explain why conclusions of age-related declines or age equivalence in mechanisms of attentional control are task specific and reveal that older adults do not exhibit global impairments in mechanisms of inhibition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual periodicity reveals distinct attentional signatures for face and non-face categories

Observers can selectively deploy attention to regions of space, moments in time, specific visual features, individual objects, and even specific high-level categories-for example, when keeping an eye out for dogs while jogging. Here, we exploited visual periodicity to examine how category-based attention differentially modulates selective neural processing of face and non-face categories. We combined electroencephalography with a novel frequency-tagging paradigm capable of capturing selective neural responses for multiple visual categories contained within the same rapid image stream (faces/birds in Exp 1; houses/birds in Exp 2). We found that the pattern of attentional enhancement and suppression for face-selective processing is unique compared to other object categories: Where attending to non-face objects strongly enhances their selective neural signals during a later stage of processing (300-500 ms), attentional enhancement of face-selective processing is both earlier and comparatively more modest. Moreover, only the selective neural response for faces appears to be actively suppressed by attending towards an alternate visual category. These results underscore the special status that faces hold within the human visual system, and highlight the utility of visual periodicity as a powerful tool for indexing selective neural processing of multiple visual categories contained within the same image sequence.

Musical Training Facilitates Exogenous Temporal Attention via Delta Phase Entrainment within a Sensorimotor Network

Temporal orienting of attention plays an important role in our day-to-day lives and can use timing information from exogenous or endogenous sources. Yet, it is unclear what neural mechanisms give rise to temporal attention, and it is debated whether both exogenous and endogenous forms of temporal attention share a common neural source. Here, older adult nonmusicians (N = 47, 24 female) were randomized to undergo 8 weeks of either rhythm training, which places demands on exogenous temporal attention, or word search training as a control. The goal was to assess (1) the neural basis of exogenous temporal attention and (2) whether training-induced improvements in exogenous temporal attention can transfer to enhanced endogenous temporal attention abilities, thereby providing support for a common neural mechanism of temporal attention. Before and after training, exogenous temporal attention was assessed using a rhythmic synchronization paradigm, whereas endogenous temporal attention was evaluated via a temporally cued visual discrimination task. Results showed that rhythm training improved performance on the exogenous temporal attention task, which was associated with increased intertrial coherence within the δ (1-4 Hz) band as assessed by EEG recordings. Source localization revealed increased δ-band intertrial coherence arose from a sensorimotor network, including premotor cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, postcentral gyrus, and the inferior parietal lobule. Despite these improvements in exogenous temporal attention, such benefits were not transferred to endogenous attentional ability. These results support the notion that exogenous and endogenous temporal attention uses independent neural sources, with exogenous temporal attention relying on the precise timing of δ band oscillations within a sensorimotor network.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Allocating attention to specific points in time is known as temporal attention, and may arise from external (exogenous) or internal (endogenous) sources. Despite its importance to our daily lives, it is unclear how the brain gives rise to temporal attention and whether exogenous- or endogenous-based sources for temporal attention rely on shared brain regions. Here, we demonstrate that musical rhythm training improves exogenous temporal attention, which was associated with more consistent timing of neural activity in sensory and motor processing brain regions. However, these benefits did not extend to endogenous temporal attention, indicating that temporal attention relies on different brain regions depending on the source of timing information.

Enhancing attention in children using an integrated cognitive-physical videogame: A pilot study

Inattention can negatively impact several aspects of a child's life, including at home and school. Cognitive and physical interventions are two promising non-pharmaceutical approaches used to enhance attention abilities, with combined approaches often being marketed to teachers, therapists, and parents typically without research validation. Here, we assessed the feasibility of incorporating an integrated, cognitive-physical, closed-loop video game (body-brain trainer or 'BBT') as an after-school program, and also evaluated if there were attention benefits following its use. Twenty-two children (7-12 years of age) with a range of attention abilities were recruited to participate in this proof of concept, single-arm, longitudinal study (24 sessions over 8 weeks, ~30 min/day). We interrogated attention abilities through a parent survey of their child's behaviors, in addition to objective performance-based and neural measures of attention. Here we observed 95% compliance as well as, significant improvements on the parent-based reports of inattention and on cognitive tests and neural measures of attention that were comparable in scale to previous work. Exploratory measures of other cognitive control abilities and physical fitness also showed similar improvement, with exploratory evaluation of retained benefits on the primary attention-related outcomes being present 1-year later. Lastly, there was no correlation between the baseline parent-rated inattention score and the improvement on the primary task-based measures of attention, suggesting that intervention-based benefits were not solely attained by those who stood the most to gain. These pilot findings warrant future research to replicate and extend these findings.

Time-Dependent Change in Cartilage Repair Tissue Evaluated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging up to 2 years after Atelocollagen-Assisted Autologous Cartilage Transplantation: Data from the CaTCh Study

OBJECTIVE

To elucidate the time course of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based morphological and qualitative outcomes after an atelocollagen-assisted autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and to analyze the correlation between arthroscopic and MRI-based assessment.

DESIGN

We included ACI recipients from a multicenter registration study (CaTCh [Cartilage Treatment in Chiba] study). Morphological (3-dimensional magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue: 3D-MOCART, MOCART2.0) and qualitative assessment (T2- and T1rho-mapping) by MRI were conducted at 6, 12, and 24 months post-implantation. Global T2 and T1rho indices (T2 and T1rho in repair tissue divided by T2 and T1rho in normal cartilage) were calculated. Arthroscopic second-look assessment was performed in 4 and 15 knees at 12 and 24 months post-implantation, respectively.

RESULTS

The 3D-MOCART over 12 months witnessed significant patient improvement, but some presented subchondral bone degeneration as early as 6 months. The MOCART2.0 improved from 57.5 to 71.3 between 6 and 24 months (P = 0.02). The global T2 index decreased from 1.7 to 1.2 between 6 and 24 months (P < 0.001). The global T1rho index decreased from 1.5 to 1.3 between 6 and 24 months (P = 0.004). Normal or nearly normal ICRS-CRA (cartilage repair assessment scale developed by the International Cartilage Repair Society) grades were achieved in 86% and 93% of the lesions at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Better ICRS-CRA grade corresponded to better MOCART2.0, with no trend in the T2 and T1rho values.

CONCLUSIONS

Atelocollagen-assisted ACI improved the MRI-based morphological and qualitative outcomes until 24 months post-surgery, and normal or nearly normal grades were achieved in most lesions by arthroscopic assessment. MRI assessment may be an alternative to arthroscopic assessment.

Alpha modulation in younger and older adults during distracted encoding

To successfully encode information into long-term memory, we need top-down control to focus our attention on target stimuli. This attentional focus is achieved by the modulation of sensory neuronal excitability through alpha power. Failure to modulate alpha power and to inhibit distracting information has been reported in older adults during attention and working memory tasks. Given that alpha power during encoding can predict subsequent memory performance, aberrant oscillatory modulations might play a role in age-related memory deficits. However, it is unknown whether there are age-related differences in memory performance or alpha modulation when encoding targets with distraction. Here we show that both older and younger adults are able to encode targets paired with distractors and that the level of alpha power modulation during encoding predicted recognition success. Even though older adults showed signs of higher distractibility, this did not harm their episodic memory for target information. Also, we demonstrate that older adults only modulated alpha power during high distraction, both by enhancing target processing and inhibiting distractor processing. These results indicate that both younger and older adults are able to employ the same inhibitory control mechanisms successfully, but that older adults fail to call upon these when distraction is minimal. The findings of this study give us more insight into the mechanisms involved in memory encoding across the lifespan.

Short-term memory, attention, and temporal orientation as predictors of the cognitive impairment in older adults: A cross-sectional observational study

Late-life cognitive decline ranges from the mildest cases of normal, age-related change to mild cognitive impairment to severe cases of dementia. Dementia is the largest global burden for the 21st century welfare and healthcare systems. The aim of this study was to analyze the neuropsychological constructs (temporal orientation (TO), spatial orientation (SO), fixation memory (FM), attention (A), calculation (C), short-term memory (STM), language (L), and praxis (P)), semantic fluency, level of functionality, and mood that reveal the greatest deficit in the different stages ranging from normal cognition (NC) to cognitive impairment in older adults in a primary healthcare setting. The study included 337 participants (102 men, 235 women), having a mean age of 74 ± 6 years. According to their scores on the Spanish version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MEC-35), subjects were divided into 4 groups: no deterioration (ND) (score 32-35), subtle cognitive impairment (SCI) (score 28-31), level deterioration (LD) (score 24-27) and moderate deterioration (MD) (score 20-23). The ND group revealed significant differences in TO, STM, C, A, L, P, and S-T as compared to the other groups. The MD group (in all the neuropsychological constructs) and the ND and SCI groups showed significant differences on the Yesavage geriatric depression scale (GDS-15). All except the FM neuropsychological construct were part of the MEC-35 prediction model and all of the regression coefficients were significant for these variables in the model. Furthermore, the highest average percentage of relative deterioration occurs between LD and MD and the greatest deterioration is observed in the STM for all groups, including A and TO for the LD and MD groups. Based on our findings, community programs have been implemented that use cognitive stimulation to prevent cognitive decline and to maintain the neuropsychological constructs.

Levels of taurine, hypotaurine and homotaurine, and amino acids profiles in selected commercial seaweeds, microalgae, and algae-enriched food products

Amino acids and sulfonic acid derivatives (Taurine-Tau; Hypotaurine-HypTau; Homotaurine-HTau) of 26 different species of commercial macroalgae, microalgae and 10 algae-enriched food products from the market were quantified in a single chromatographic run. Tau and analogues were predominantly distributed in red species followed by green and brown species. Palmaria palmata, Gracilaria longissima and Porphyra sp. were the species with the highest content of Tau and total sulfonic acid derivatives (TAD). Notwithstanding, relatively high concentrations of HTau were found in green algae Ulva lactuca and G. vermicullophyla as well as in the brown algae Undaria pinnatifida. HTau and HypTau were found at lower concentrations than Tau in all species, except in Ulva lactuca. The samples with the highest protein content were the green species Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis, and Afanizomenon-flos aquae, followed by the red algae Gracilaria longissima and Gracilaria vermicullophyla. Samples of pasta formulated with algae ingredients contained the highest levels of sulfonic acid derivatives, evidencing that these products can provide levels of TAD comparable to those found in foods of animal origin. This study provides, for the first time, quantitative information regarding the distribution of sulfonic acid derivatives and total amino acids in multiple algae species as well as the nutritional impact of the inclusion of algae ingredients in commercial food matrices.

Dietary Amino Acids and Immunonutrition Supplementation in Cancer-Induced Skeletal Muscle Mass Depletion: A Mini-Review

Cancer patients display systemic inflammation, which leads to an increase in protein catabolism, thus promoting the release of free amino acids to further support metabolism and remodelling of muscle proteins. Inflammation associated with tumor growth leads to malnutrition, a factor that increases the risk of developing cachexia. With cancer-induced cachexia, nutritional interventions have gained traction as a preventative method to manage this condition. Currently, cancer consensus recommendations suggest a protein intake above 1.0 g/kg.day-1 up to 2.0 g/k.day-1 for cancer patients, although an ideal amount for some amino acids in isolation has yet to be determined. Due to controversy in the literature regarding the benefits of the biochemical mechanisms of various muscle mass supplements, such as L-leucine (including whey protein and BCAA), β-hydroxy-beta-methyl butyrate (HMβ), arginine, glutamine and creatine, several studies have carefully examined their effects. L-leucine and its derivatives appear to regulate protein synthesis by direct or indirect activation of the mTORC1 pool of kinases, further promoting muscle protein balance. Arginine and glutamine may act by reducing inflammation and infection progression, thus promoting improvements in food intake. Creatine exerts anabolic activity, acting as an immediate energy substrate to support muscle contraction further increasing lean mass, mainly due to greater water uptake by the muscle. In this narrative review, we highlighted the main findings regarding protein consumption and amino acids to mitigate cancer-induced skeletal muscle depletion.

CPEB3 functions as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer via JAK/STAT signaling

As RNA-binding proteins, cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding proteins (CPEBs) have drawn increasing attention for their function of controlling gene expression related to malignant transformation via post-transcriptional regulation. However, the contribution of CPEB3 to malignant development in cancers is poorly understood. In this study, we explored the clinical, biological, and mechanical role of CPEB3 in colorectal cancer progression. We showed that colorectal cancer tissues exhibited dampened CPEB3 expression which was closely associated with poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer (47 vs. 62 months, P = 0.035, n=99). Down-regulation CPEB3 promoted proliferation, migration, and invasion in colorectal cancer cells and vice versa. Mechanistically, CPEB3 performed as an RNA binding protein binding to 3'UTR of JAK1 mRNA to inhibit JAK/STAT pathways in colorectal cancer cells. Knockdown of CPEB3 induced active JAK-STAT signaling, thereby triggering the proliferation and metastasis capacity of colorectal cancer cells. These results suggest that CPEB3 functions as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer through its post-transcriptional regulation of JAK/STAT signaling. Implications: This study identified a novel role of the RNA binding protein CPEB3 in inhibiting cell proliferation and migration as well as the underlining mechanisms in colorectal cancer cells.

The investigation of the parameters affecting the ZnO nanoparticle cytotoxicity behaviour: a tutorial review

In the last 30 years the research about zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and their related toxicity has shown a boom. ZnO NPs show cytotoxicity for both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and many studies demonstrated their selective toxicity towards cancer cells. However, with the increasing number of publications, it is observed an increase in the discrepancies obtained between the various results. Soon the scientific community understood that the ZnO NC toxicity behaviour is affected by many factors, related not only to the ZnO NPs themselves, but also to the experimental conditions used. Many recent reviews discussed these parameters by reporting experimental evidence and tried to assess the general statements about the ZnO NP cytotoxicity. This information is extremely useful for the evaluation of which type of ZnO NPs is more or less suitable for a specific study or application. However, despite that, a deep comprehension of the ZnO NP behaviour in relation to the different experimental conditions is still lacking. Actually, a full understanding of the reasons behind the NP behaviour is essential to better assess their biological activity and in particular their therapeutic application, avoiding undesired effects both in the experimental and clinical contexts. This tutorial review aims to be an experimental and practical guide for scientists that faced with the use of ZnO NPs for biomedical applications and, in particular, for their therapeutic purposes. The driving idea is to not simply summarize the results reported in the literature, but to provide instruments for a deep comprehension of the mechanisms affecting the ZnO NP cytotoxicity and behavior. This review also aims to point out the critical experimental parameters to be considered when working with these NPs, as well as the main related risks and limitations that scientists have to face.

Temporal attention is not affected by working memory load

Temporal attention refers to the ability to orient attention in time, which serves to enhance performance such as target detection and discrimination and is a fundamental component of cognitive function. Although some research indicates that temporal attention ability is affected by working memory updating, it is unclear whether temporal attention is also affected by the availability of working memory stores. To address this, participants were presented a dual-task paradigm requiring zero, three, or six digits to be held in working memory while engaged in a temporally cued visual discrimination task. Results show that working memory load did not differentially affect the ability to benefit from predictive temporal cues during the visual discrimination task. This indicates that temporal attention is not affected by available working memory stores. Interestingly, posterior beta band (12-30 Hz) activity was differentially modulated by temporal attention and working memory load, such that it decreased prior to expected targets and increased with load. Analysis across participants indicated that those individuals who exhibited greater temporal attention-based modulation of beta activity (i.e., predictive < neutrally cued) displayed improved discrimination performance, but also yielded lowered working memory accuracy. Thus, the ability to benefit from temporal attention processes while multitasking comes at the cost of lowered secondary task performance. Together, these results indicate that available working memory stores do not affect temporal attention ability. Rather, limitations in divided attention ability result in a performance cost that prioritizes one task over another, which may be indexed by beta band activity.

Compartmentalized Neuronal Culture for Viral Transport Research

Neuron-invading viruses usually enter via the peripheral organs/tissues of their mammalian hosts and are transported to the neurons. Virus trafficking is critical for transport or spread within the nervous system. Primary culture of neurons is a valuable and indispensable method for neurobiological research, allowing researchers to investigate basic mechanisms of diverse neuronal functions as well as retrograde and anterograde virus transport in neuronal axons. Primary ganglion sensory neurons from mice can be cultured in a compartmentalized culture device, which allows spatial fluidic separation of cell bodies and distal axons. These neurons serve as an important model for investigating the transport of viruses between the neuronal soma and distal axons. Alphaherpesviruses are fascinating and important human and animal pathogens, they replicate and establish lifelong latent infection in the peripheral nervous system, the mechanism of the viral transport along the axon is the key to understand the virus spread in the nervous system. In this review, we briefly introduce and evaluate the most frequently used compartmentalization tools in viral transport research, with particular emphasis on alphaherpesviruses.

High-dose buprenorphine for treatment of high potency opioid use disorder

A 29-year-old woman presented to detox for treatment of an opioid use disorder with illicit fentanyl. While in detox, she was started on opioid agonist treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone. Unfortunately, she continued to have withdrawal symptoms despite being optimised to a dose of 32 mg. She was given additional PRNs of buprenorphine/naloxone to a total daily dose of 40 mg, which helped to alleviate her symptoms of withdrawal and cravings. She was stabilised on buprenorphine/naloxone 40 mg daily without any side effects and was discharged to a rehabilitation centre.

Aging of the frontal lobe

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.

Overgeneral autobiographical memory and depression in older adults: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is a well-researched phenomenon in working age adults with depression. However, the relevance and importance of OGM in older adult depression is not well established. The aim of this review was to synthesise existing literature on OGM and depressive symptoms in older adults under the framework of the Capture and Rumination, Functional Avoidance and Impaired Executive Control (CaR-FA-X) model.

METHOD

Literature searches were conducted using PsychINFO, PubMed and Web of Knowledge. Eighteen articles were reviewed.

RESULTS

OGM is elevated in healthy older adults compared to adults of working age, and further elevated in older adults with depression. Evidence supports the role of impaired executive function as a mechanism for OGM in older adults with depression, but no studies measured other components of the CaR-FA-X model (i.e. functional avoidance and rumination).

CONCLUSION

OGM is prevalent in older adults and more so for those with depression; however, there is no clear understanding of the underpinning mechanisms. It is recommended that future research looks at the role of functional avoidance and rumination, and at the use of memory specificity interventions being developed in the working age adult literature.

Selective Attention to Faces in a Rapid Visual Stream: Hemispheric Differences in Enhancement and Suppression of Category-selective Neural Activity

In daily life, efficient perceptual categorization of faces occurs in dynamic and highly complex visual environments. Yet the role of selective attention in guiding face categorization has predominantly been studied under sparse and static viewing conditions, with little focus on disentangling the impact of attentional enhancement and suppression. Here we show that attentional enhancement and suppression exert a differential impact on face categorization supported by the left and right hemispheres. We recorded 128-channel EEG while participants viewed a 6-Hz stream of object images (buildings, animals, objects, etc.) with a face image embedded as every fifth image (i.e., OOOOFOOOOFOOOOF…). We isolated face-selective activity by measuring the response at the face presentation frequency (i.e., 6 Hz/5 = 1.2 Hz) under three conditions: Attend Faces, in which participants monitored the sequence for instances of female faces; Attend Objects, in which they responded to instances of guitars; and Baseline, in which they performed an orthogonal task on the central fixation cross. During the orthogonal task, face-specific activity was predominantly centered over the right occipitotemporal region. Actively attending to faces enhanced face-selective activity much more evidently in the left hemisphere than in the right, whereas attending to objects suppressed the face-selective response in both hemispheres to a comparable extent. In addition, the time courses of attentional enhancement and suppression did not overlap. These results suggest the left and right hemispheres support face-selective processing in distinct ways—where the right hemisphere is mandatorily engaged by faces and the left hemisphere is more flexibly recruited to serve current tasks demands.

Differential Impact of Interference on Internally- and Externally-Directed Attention

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.

The Effects of Attentional Engagement on Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: An Aging Study

Route learning is a common navigation task affected by cognitive aging. Here we present a novel experimental paradigm to investigate whether age-related declines in executive control of attention contributes to route learning deficits. A young and an older participant group was repeatedly presented with a route through a virtual maze comprised of 12 decision points (DP) and non-decision points (non-DP). To investigate attentional engagement with the route learning task, participants had to respond to auditory probes at both DP and non-DP. Route knowledge was assessed by showing participants screenshots or landmarks from DPs and non-DPs and asking them to indicate the movement direction required to continue the route. Results demonstrate better performance for DPs than for non-DPs and slower responses to auditory probes at DPs compared to non-DPs. As expected we found slower route learning and slower responses to the auditory probes in the older participant group. Interestingly, differences in response times to the auditory probes between DPs and non-DPs can predict the success of route learning in both age groups and may explain slower knowledge acquisition in the older participant group.

Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Daily experiences demand both focused and broad allocation of attention for us to interact efficiently with our complex environments. Many types of attention have shown age-related decline, although there is also evidence that such deficits may be remediated with cognitive training. However, spatial attention abilities have shown inconsistent age-related differences, and the extent of potential enhancement of these abilities remains unknown. Here, we assessed spatial attention in both healthy younger and older adults and trained this ability in both age groups for 5 hr over the course of 2 weeks using a custom-made, computerized mobile training application. We compared training-related gains on a spatial attention assessment and spatial working memory task to age-matched controls who engaged in expectancy-matched, active placebo computerized training. Age-related declines in spatial attention abilities were observed regardless of task difficulty. Spatial attention training led to improved focused and distributed attention abilities as well as improved spatial working memory in both younger and older participants. No such improvements were observed in either of the age-matched control groups. Note that these findings were not a function of improvements in simple response time, as basic motoric function did not change after training. Furthermore, when using change in simple response time as a covariate, all findings remained significant. These results suggest that spatial attention training can lead to enhancements in spatial working memory regardless of age.

Predictive cues and age-related declines in working memory performance

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.

Processos Cognitivos Visuoespaciais e Ambiente Visual Circundante: Implicações Educacionais

RESUMO Nesta revisão de literatura, abordamos a importância da atenção seletiva, da inibição e da memória de trabalho na aprendizagem das crianças. Começamos por apresentar as suas definições e principais mecanismos funcionais. Apresentamos igualmente conclusões de vários estudos que abordam a importância desses processos, sobretudo em tarefas visuoespaciais. Finalmente, abordamos o papel que o ambiente visual circundante desempenha na aprendizagem, chamando a atenção para uma lacuna que se verifica em grande parte dos estudos: a sua pouca validade ecológica. É também defendido que o ambiente visual externo deve ser considerado nos modelos explicativos dos processos cognitivos básicos. Conclui-se o trabalho alertando para a necessidade de se estudar de forma mais sistemática a relação entre estes dois elementos (cognição e ambiente).

The impact of executive capacity and age on mechanisms underlying multidimensional feature selection

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.

Age and time effects on implicit and explicit learning

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: It has been proposed that effects of aging are more pronounced for explicit than for implicit motor learning. The authors evaluated this claim by comparing the efficacy of explicit and implicit learning of a movement sequence in young and older adults, and by testing the resilience against fatigue and secondary tasking after learning. It was also examined whether explicit learning in older adults can be promoted by alleviating time constraints during learning.

METHODS

The alternating serial reaction time task (ASRTT) was used. Experiment 1 compared the benefits of receiving full instructions about the stimulus sequence relative to receiving no instructions in young (20-25 years) and older (50-65 years) adults during retention and during transfer to fatigue and secondary task conditions. Experiment 2 alleviated time constraints during the initial bouts of practice with full instructions.

RESULTS

Experiment 1 indicated that the older adults learned on the ASRTT and achieved similar performance as young adults when no instructions were given. In contrast to the young adults, learning was not superior in older adults who received full instructions compared with those who did not. Experiment 2 indicated that alleviating time constraints allowed some of the older adults to gain from instruction but only under relatively low time constraints, but there was no retention with rigorous time constraints.

CONCLUSION

Explicit learning, but not implicit learning, declines in older adults. This is partly due to older adults difficulties to apply explicit knowledge. Less rigorous time constraints can help to ameliorate some of these difficulties and may induce levels of explicit learning in older adults that will result in superior performance compared with implicit learning. Implicit learning did occur under time constraints that prevented explicit learning.

External distraction impairs categorization performance in older adults

The detrimental influence of distraction on memory and attention is well established, yet it is not as clear whether irrelevant information impacts categorization abilities and whether this impact changes in aging. We examined categorization with morphed prototype stimuli in both younger and older adults, using an adaptive staircase approach to assess participants' performance in conditions with and without visual distractors. Results showed that distraction did not affect younger adults, but produced a negative impact on older adults' categorization such that there was an interaction of age and distraction. These results suggest a relationship between the increased susceptibility to visual distraction in normal aging and impairment in categorization.

The boundary condition for observing compensatory responses by the elderly in a flanker-task paradigm

This study aimed to establish a baseline condition to observe ERP responses for older adults in a conventional flanker-task paradigm, in which neither a reversal response rule toward a target nor a color-coded target was employed. In addition, this study aimed to examine whether the previous finding of the compensatory responses reflected on event-related potential (ERP) for older adults in performing a flanker task was due to the specific demand of the reversal response rule toward a target or simply due to the pop-out effect with a singleton target manipulation. The results of the current study showed that (1) some of the previously thought-to-be compensatory ERP responses might not really reflect compensatory responses; (2) the previous finding of age-related ERP compensatory responses was mainly due to the manipulation of the reversal response rule condition; and (3) in some scenarios of flanker-task paradigms, older adults were just as capable as younger adults in conquer with the flanker interference even though no ERP compensatory responses were found.

Attention and working memory in elderly: the influence of a distracting environment

The present work investigated the effect of a distracting environment in the performance of attentional and working memory (WM) tasks in elderly participants. To this end, forty elderly performed two attentional tasks (simple reaction time and go/no-go tasks), and three WM tasks (arithmetic, memory for digits and sequences of letters and numbers). Each participant performed the tasks in a distracting and a non-distracting environment, with an interval of 14-21 days between sessions. The results revealed better performance in the attentional tasks when these were done in the non-distracting environment, as compared to when they were done in the distracting environment. Specifically, participants provided more accurate responses, fewer false alarms and omissions when responding in the non-distracting environment than when responding in the distracting environment. Participants were also faster at providing correct responses in the go/no-go task when it was performed in the non-distracting environment. As for the memory tasks, the effect of type of environment was significant only in the memory for digits in a forward direction task. Our data suggest the need to consider the potential damaging consequences of distracting environments when the elderly have to perform tasks that demand their attention. Specific examples of such situations are presented in the discussion (e.g., distracting effect of environment on medical and on psychological evaluations).

Age-equivalent top-down modulation during cross-modal selective attention

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.

Structural and functional differences in medial prefrontal cortex underlie distractibility and suppression deficits in ageing

Older adults experience deficits in working memory (WM) that are acutely exacerbated by the presence of distracting information. Human neurophysiological studies have revealed that these changes are accompanied by a diminished ability to suppress visual cortical activity associated with task-irrelevant information. Although this is often attributed to deficits in top-down control from a prefrontal cortical source, this has not yet been directly demonstrated. Here we evaluate the neural basis of distraction’s negative impact on WM and the impairment in neural suppression in older adults by performing structural and functional MRIs while older participants engage in tasks that require remembering relevant visual stimuli in the context of overlapping irrelevant stimuli. Analysis supports both an age-related distraction effect and neural suppression deficit, and extends our understanding by revealing an alteration in functional connectivity between visual cortices and a region in the default network, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Moreover, within the older population, the magnitude of WM distractibility and neural suppression are both associated with individual differences in cortical volume and activity of the mPFC, as well as its associated white-matter tracts.

Preserved discrimination performance and neural processing during crossmodal attention in aging

In a recent study in younger adults (19-29 year olds) we showed evidence that distributed audiovisual attention resulted in improved discrimination performance for audiovisual stimuli compared to focused visual attention. Here, we extend our findings to healthy older adults (60-90 year olds), showing that performance benefits of distributed audiovisual attention in this population match those of younger adults. Specifically, improved performance was revealed in faster response times for semantically congruent audiovisual stimuli during distributed relative to focused visual attention, without any differences in accuracy. For semantically incongruent stimuli, discrimination accuracy was significantly improved during distributed relative to focused attention. Furthermore, event-related neural processing showed intact crossmodal integration in higher performing older adults similar to younger adults. Thus, there was insufficient evidence to support an age-related deficit in crossmodal attention.

Cognitive aging: is there a dark side to environmental support?

It has been known for some time that memory deficits among older adults increase when self-initiated processing is required and decrease when the environment provides task-appropriate cues. We propose that this observation is not confined to memory but can be subsumed under a more general developmental trend. In perception, learning or memory, and action management, older adults often rely more on external information than younger adults do, probably both as a direct reflection and indirect adaptation to difficulties in internally triggering and maintaining cognitive representations. This age-graded shift from internal towards environmental control is often associated with compromised performance. Cognitive aging research and the design of aging-friendly environments can benefit from paying closer attention to the developmental dynamics and implications of this shift.

Age-related changes in expectation-based modulation of motion detectability

Expecting motion in some particular direction biases sensitivity to that direction, which speeds detection of motion. However, the neural processes underlying this effect remain underexplored, especially in the context of normal aging. To address this, we examined younger and older adults' performance in a motion detection task. In separate conditions, the probability was either 50% or 100% that a field of dots would move coherently in the direction a participant expected (either vertically or horizontally). Expectation and aging effects were assessed via response times (RT) to detect motion and electroencephalography (EEG). In both age groups, RTs were fastest when motion was similar to the expected direction of motion. RT tuning curves exhibited a characteristic U-shape such that detection time increased with an increasing deviation from the participant's expected direction. Strikingly, EEG results showed an analogous, hyperbolic curve for N1 amplitude, reflecting neural biasing. Though the form of behavioral and EEG curves did not vary with age, older adults displayed a clear decline in the speed of detection and a corresponding reduction in EEG N1 amplitude when horizontal (but not vertical) motion was expected. Our results suggest that expectation-based detection ability varies with age and, for older adults, also with axis of motion.

The dissociation between early and late selection in older adults

Older adults exhibit a reduced ability to ignore task-irrelevant stimuli; however, it remains to be determined where along the information processing stream the most salient age-associated changes occur. In the current study, ERPs provided an opportunity to determine whether age-related differences in processing task-irrelevant stimuli were uniform across information processing stages or disproportionately affected either early or late selection. ERPs were measured in young and old adults during a color-selective attention task in which participants responded to target letters in a specified color (attend condition) while ignoring letters in a different color (ignore condition). Old participants were matched to two groups of young participants on the basis of neuropsychological test performance: one using age-appropriate norms and the other using test scores not adjusted for age. There were no age-associated differences in the magnitude of early selection (attend-ignore), as indexed by the size of the anterior selection positivity and posterior selection negativity. During late selection, as indexed by P3b amplitude, both groups of young participants generated neural responses to target letters under the attend versus ignore conditions that were highly differentiated. In striking contrast, old participants generated a P3b to target letters with no reliable differences between conditions. Individuals who were slow to initiate early selection appeared to be less successful at executing late selection. Despite relative preservation of the operations of early selection, processing delays may lead older participants to allocate excessive resources to task-irrelevant stimuli during late selection.

Object recognition in congruent and incongruent natural scenes: a life-span study

Efficient processing of our complex visual environment is essential and many daily visual tasks rely on accurate and fast object recognition. It is therefore important to evaluate how object recognition performance evolves during the course of adulthood. Surprisingly, this ability has not yet been investigated in the aged population, although several neuroimaging studies have reported altered activity in high-level visual ventral regions when elderly subjects process natural stimuli. In the present study, color photographs of various objects embedded in contextual scenes were used to assess object categorization performance in 97 participants aged from 20 to 91. Objects were either animals or pieces of furniture, embedded in either congruent or incongruent contexts. In every age group, subjects showed reduced categorization performance, both in terms of accuracy and speed, when objects were seen in incongruent vs. congruent contexts. In subjects over 60 years old, object categorization was greatly slowed down when compared to young and middle-aged subjects. Moreover, subjects over 75 years old evidenced a significant decrease in categorization accuracy when objects were seen in incongruent contexts. This indicates that incongruence of the scene may be particularly disturbing in late adulthood, therefore impairing object recognition. Our results suggest that daily visual processing of complex natural environments may be less efficient with age, which might impact performance in everyday visual tasks.

Cholinergic enhancement of functional networks in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

OBJECTIVE

The importance of the cholinergic system for cognitive function has been well documented in animal and human studies. The objective of this study was to elucidate the cognitive and functional connectivity changes associated with enhanced acetylcholine levels. We hypothesized that older adults with mild memory deficits would show behavioral and functional network enhancements with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment (donepezil) when compared to a placebo control group.

METHODS

We conducted a 3-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the effects of donepezil in 27 older adults with mild memory deficits. Participants completed a delayed recognition memory task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were collected at baseline prior to treatment and at 3-month follow-up while subjects were on a 10mg daily dose of donepezil or placebo.

RESULTS

Donepezil treatment significantly enhanced the response time for face and scene memory probes when compared to the placebo group. A group-by-visit interaction was identified for the functional network connectivity of the left fusiform face area (FFA) with the hippocampus and inferior frontal junction, such that the treatment group showed increased connectivity over time when compared to the placebo group. Additionally, the enhanced functional network connectivity of the FFA and hippocampus significantly predicted memory response time at 3-month follow-up in the treatment group.

INTERPRETATION

These findings suggest that increased cholinergic transmission improves goal-directed neural processing and cognitive ability and may serve to facilitate communication across functionally-connected attention and memory networks. Longitudinal fMRI is a useful method for elucidating the neural changes associated with pharmacological modulation and is a potential tool for monitoring intervention efficacy in clinical trials.

Age-related differences in enhancement and suppression of neural activity underlying selective attention in matched young and old adults

Selective attention reflects the top-down control of sensory processing that is mediated by enhancement or inhibition of neural activity. ERPs were used to investigate age-related differences in neural activity in an experiment examining selective attention to color under Attend and Ignore conditions, as well as under a Neutral condition in which color was task-irrelevant. We sought to determine whether differences in neural activity between old and young adult subjects were due to differences in age rather than executive capacity. Old subjects were matched to two groups of young subjects on the basis of neuropsychological test performance: one using age-appropriate norms and the other using test scores not adjusted for age. We found that old and young subject groups did not differ in the overall modulation of selective attention between Attend and Ignore conditions, as indexed by the size of the anterior Selection Positivity. However, in contrast to either young adult group, old subjects did not exhibit reduced neural activity under the Ignore relative to Neutral condition, but showed enhanced activity under the Attend condition. The onset and peak of the Selection Positivity occurred later for old than young subjects. In summary, older adults execute selective attention less efficiently than matched younger subjects, with slowed processing and failed suppression under Ignore. Increased enhancement under Attend may serve as a compensatory mechanism.

Executive functions

Executive functions (EFs) make possible mentally playing with ideas; taking the time to think before acting; meeting novel, unanticipated challenges; resisting temptations; and staying focused. Core EFs are inhibition [response inhibition (self-control--resisting temptations and resisting acting impulsively) and interference control (selective attention and cognitive inhibition)], working memory, and cognitive flexibility (including creatively thinking "outside the box," seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances). The developmental progression and representative measures of each are discussed. Controversies are addressed (e.g., the relation between EFs and fluid intelligence, self-regulation, executive attention, and effortful control, and the relation between working memory and inhibition and attention). The importance of social, emotional, and physical health for cognitive health is discussed because stress, lack of sleep, loneliness, or lack of exercise each impair EFs. That EFs are trainable and can be improved with practice is addressed, including diverse methods tried thus far.

Older adults, unlike younger adults, do not modulate alpha power to suppress irrelevant information

This study examines the neural mechanisms through which younger and older adults ignore irrelevant information, a process that is necessary to effectively encode new memories. Some age-related memory deficits have been linked to a diminished ability to dynamically gate sensory input, resulting in problems inhibiting the processing of distracting stimuli. Whereas oscillatory power in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) over visual cortical areas is thought to dynamically gate sensory input in younger adults, it is not known whether older adults use the same mechanism to gate out sensory input. Here we identified a task in which both older and younger adults could suppress the processing of irrelevant sensory stimuli, allowing us to use electroencephalography (EEG) to explore the neural activity associated with suppression of visual processing. As expected, we found that the younger adults' suppression of visual processing was correlated with robust modulation of alpha oscillatory power. However, older adults did not modulate alpha power to suppress processing of visual information. These results demonstrate that suppression of alpha power is not necessary to inhibit the processing of distracting stimuli in older adults, suggesting the existence of alternative strategies for suppressing irrelevant, potentially distracting information.

Lifespan age differences in working memory: a two-component framework

We suggest that working memory (WM) performance can be conceptualized as the interplay of low-level feature binding processes and top-down control, relating to posterior and frontal brain regions and their interaction in a distributed neural network. We propose that due to age-differential trajectories of posterior and frontal brain regions top-down control processes are not fully mature until young adulthood and show marked decline with advancing age, whereas binding processes are relatively mature in children, but show senescent decline in older adults. A review of the literature spanning from middle childhood to old age shows that binding and top-down control processes undergo profound changes across the lifespan. We illustrate commonalities and dissimilarities between children, younger adults, and older adults reflecting the change in the two components' relative contribution to visual WM performance across the lifespan using results from our own lab. We conclude that an integrated account of visual WM lifespan changes combining research from behavioral neuroscience and cognitive psychology of child development as well as aging research opens avenues to advance our understanding of cognition in general.

Keeping focused: sustained spatial selective visual attention is maintained in healthy old age

A better understanding of age-related change in the attentional modulation of perceptual processing may help elucidate cognitive change. For example, increased cognitive interference due to inappropriate processing of irrelevant information has been suggested to contribute to cognitive decline. However, it is not yet clear whether interference effects observed at later stages, such as executive function or response selection, are caused by leaky attentional selection at early, sensory stages of processing. Here, we investigated attentional control of sensory selection by comparing younger and older adults' ability to sustain spatial selective attention to one of two centrally presented, overlapping rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) letter sequences, one large and one small. These stimuli elicited separable steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP), which provide an index of early visual processing for each stimulus separately and are known to be modulated by selective attention. The condition of most interest required participants to attend to the larger letters while ignoring the smaller letters, as these foveally presented irrelevant stimuli were expected to present the strongest interference. Although the rapid presentation rates made the task demanding, detection ability did not differ between young and older adults. Accordingly, attentional modulation of SSVEP amplitudes was found in both age groups. Neither the magnitude nor the cortical sources of these SSVEP attention effects differed between age groups. Our results thus suggest that in the current task, the effect of voluntary spatial attention on sustained sensory processing in early visual areas is maintained in healthy old age.

Does modulation of selective attention to features reflect enhancement or suppression of neural activity?

Numerous studies have demonstrated that selective attention to color is associated with a larger neural response under attend than ignore conditions, but have not addressed whether this difference reflects enhanced activity under attend or suppressed activity under ignore. In this study, a color-neutral condition was included, which presented stimuli physically identical to those under attend and ignore conditions, but in which color was not task relevant. Attention to color did not modulate the early sensory-evoked P1 and N1 components. Traditional ERP markers of early selection (the anterior Selection Positivity and posterior Selection Negativity) did not differ between the attend and neutral conditions, arguing against a mechanism of enhanced activity. However, there were markedly reduced responses under the ignore relative to the neutral condition, consistent with the view that early selection mechanisms reflect suppression of neural activity under the ignore condition.

Top-down modulation: bridging selective attention and working memory

Selective attention, the ability to focus our cognitive resources on information relevant to our goals, influences working memory (WM) performance. Indeed, attention and working memory are increasingly viewed as overlapping constructs. Here, we review recent evidence from human neurophysiological studies demonstrating that top-down modulation serves as a common neural mechanism underlying these two cognitive operations. The core features include activity modulation in stimulus-selective sensory cortices with concurrent engagement of prefrontal and parietal control regions that function as sources of top-down signals. Notably, top-down modulation is engaged during both stimulus-present and stimulus-absent stages of WM tasks; that is, expectation of an ensuing stimulus to be remembered, selection and encoding of stimuli, maintenance of relevant information in mind and memory retrieval.

Dissociation of motor and sensory inhibition processes in normal aging

OBJECTIVE

Age-related cognitive impairments have been attributed to deficits in inhibitory processes that mediate both motor restraint and sensory filtering. However, behavioral studies have failed to show an association between tasks that measure these distinct types of inhibition. In the present study, we hypothesized neural markers reflecting each type of inhibition may reveal a relationship across inhibitory domains in older adults.

METHODS

Electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral measures were used to explore whether there was an across-participant correlation between sensory suppression and motor inhibition. Sixteen healthy older adult participants (65-80 years) engaged in two separate experimental paradigms: a selective attention, delayed-recognition task and a stop-signal task.

RESULTS

Findings revealed no significant relationship existed between neural markers of sensory suppression (P1 amplitude; N170 latency) and markers of motor inhibition (N2 and P3 amplitude and latency) in older adults.

CONCLUSIONS

These distinct inhibitory domains are differentially impacted in normal aging, as evidenced by previous behavioral work and the current neural findings. Thus a generalized inhibitory deficit may not be a common impairment in cognitive aging.

SIGNIFICANCE

Given that some theories of cognitive aging suggest age-related failure of inhibitory mechanisms may span different modalities, the present findings contribute to an alternative view where age-related declines within each inhibitory modality are unrelated.

Famous faces demand attention due to reduced inhibitory processing

People have particular difficulty ignoring distractors that depict faces. This phenomenon has been attributed to the high level of biological significance that faces carry. The current study aimed to elucidate the mechanism by which faces gain processing priority. We used a focused attention paradigm that tracks the influence of a distractor over time and provides a measure of inhibitory processing. Upright famous faces served as test stimuli and inverted versions of the faces as well as upright non-face objects served as control stimuli. The results revealed that although all of the stimuli elicited similar levels of distraction, only inverted distractor faces and non-face objects elicited inhibitory effects. The lack of inhibitory effects for upright famous faces provides novel evidence that reduced inhibitory processing underlies the mandatory nature of face processing.

Deficit in switching between functional brain networks underlies the impact of multitasking on working memory in older adults

Multitasking negatively influences the retention of information over brief periods of time. This impact of interference on working memory is exacerbated with normal aging. We used functional MRI to investigate the neural basis by which an interruption is more disruptive to working memory performance in older individuals. Younger and older adults engaged in delayed recognition tasks both with and without interruption by a secondary task. Behavioral analysis revealed that working memory performance was more impaired by interruptions in older compared with younger adults. Functional connectivity analyses showed that when interrupted, older adults disengaged from a memory maintenance network and reallocated attentional resources toward the interrupting stimulus in a manner consistent with younger adults. However, unlike younger individuals, older adults failed to both disengage from the interruption and reestablish functional connections associated with the disrupted memory network. These results suggest that multitasking leads to more significant working memory disruption in older adults because of an interruption recovery failure, manifest as a deficient ability to dynamically switch between functional brain networks.