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Bian Z, Wang B, Wu X, Wang K, Jiang Y. Development and Validation of Paradigms Based on the Global-First Topological Approach for Alzheimer's Disease Severity Staging. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2024; 20:1225-1234. [PMID: 38883415 PMCID: PMC11178089 DOI: 10.2147/ndt.s460421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Conventional methods like patient history, neuropsychological testing, cerebrospinal fluid examination, and magnetic resonance imaging are widely used to diagnose cases in the current clinical setting but are limited in classifying Alzheimer's disease (AD) stages. Patients with AD exhibit visual perception deficits, which may be a potential target to assess the severity of the disease according to visual paradigms. However, owing to the inconsistent forms of perceived objects, the defects of current visual processing paradigms often lead to inconsistent results and a lack of sensitivity and specificity. Methods We develop two paradigms based on global-first topological approach of visual perception, which avoids inconsistent results and lack of sensitivity and specificity owing to the inconsistent forms of perceived objects in traditional paradigms, delineate a unique detection strategy from perception organization (Experiment 1) and visual working memory (VWM) (Experiment 2). Results Except for the significant differences of the reaction times (RTs) between groups, significant differences were found when AD subjects recognize small figures due to the consistency of global and local figures in similarity test. The difference of RTs between recognizing global and local figures can be recognized in AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) group compared to healthy elderly (HE) in similarity test (Experiment 1). The memory capacity of AD patients was significantly lower than MCI group. Topological interference effect was observed in MCI and HE group, whereas MCI patients may have a greater difference trend in non-topological and topological changes than HE (Experiment 2). Conclusion Our paradigms provide a new strategy, which can assist clinical severity staging and linking topological approach of visual perception with pathophysiological processes in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhida Bian
- Anhui Medical University School of Basic Medicine, Hefei, 230032, People's Republic of China
- Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230088, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Bo Wang
- Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230088, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xingqi Wu
- Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
| | - Kai Wang
- Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, 230022, People's Republic of China
- The School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi Jiang
- Anhui Medical University School of Basic Medicine, Hefei, 230032, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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2
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Jones SA, Noppeney U. Older adults preserve audiovisual integration through enhanced cortical activations, not by recruiting new regions. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002494. [PMID: 38319934 PMCID: PMC10871488 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2023] [Revised: 02/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Effective interactions with the environment rely on the integration of multisensory signals: Our brains must efficiently combine signals that share a common source, and segregate those that do not. Healthy ageing can change or impair this process. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study assessed the neural mechanisms underlying age differences in the integration of auditory and visual spatial cues. Participants were presented with synchronous audiovisual signals at various degrees of spatial disparity and indicated their perceived sound location. Behaviourally, older adults were able to maintain localisation accuracy. At the neural level, they integrated auditory and visual cues into spatial representations along dorsal auditory and visual processing pathways similarly to their younger counterparts but showed greater activations in a widespread system of frontal, temporal, and parietal areas. According to multivariate Bayesian decoding, these areas encoded critical stimulus information beyond that which was encoded in the brain areas commonly activated by both groups. Surprisingly, however, the boost in information provided by these areas with age-related activation increases was comparable across the 2 age groups. This dissociation-between comparable information encoded in brain activation patterns across the 2 age groups, but age-related increases in regional blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses-contradicts the widespread notion that older adults recruit new regions as a compensatory mechanism to encode task-relevant information. Instead, our findings suggest that activation increases in older adults reflect nonspecific or modulatory mechanisms related to less efficient or slower processing, or greater demands on attentional resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel A. Jones
- Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Uta Noppeney
- Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
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3
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Parimoo S, Choi A, Iafrate L, Grady C, Olsen R. Are older adults susceptible to visual distraction when targets and distractors are spatially separated? NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2024; 31:38-74. [PMID: 36059213 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2117271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Older adults show preserved memory for previously distracting information due to reduced inhibitory control. In some previous studies, targets and distractors overlap both temporally and spatially. We investigated whether age differences in attentional orienting and disengagement affect recognition memory when targets and distractors are spatially separated at encoding. In Experiments 1 and 2, eye movements were recorded while participants completed an incidental encoding task under covert (i.e., restricted viewing) and overt (i.e., free-viewing) conditions, respectively. The encoding task consisted of pairs of target and distractor item-color stimuli presented in separate visual hemifields. Prior to stimulus onset, a central cue indicated the location of the upcoming target. Participants were subsequently tested on their recognition of the items, their location, and the associated color. In Experiment 3, targets were validly cued on 75% of the encoding trials; on invalid trials, participants had to disengage their attention from the distractor and reorient to the target. Associative memory for colors was reduced among older adults across all experiments, though their location memory was only reduced in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, older and younger adults directed a similar proportion of fixations toward targets and distractors. Explicit recognition of distractors did not differ between age groups in any of the experiments. However, older adults were slower to correctly recognize distractors than false alarm to novel items in Experiment 2, suggesting some implicit memory for distraction. Together, these results demonstrate that older adults may only be vulnerable to encoding visual distraction when viewing behavior is unconstrained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shireen Parimoo
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Anika Choi
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | - Cheryl Grady
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Rosanna Olsen
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
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4
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Álvarez-San Millán A, Iglesias J, Gutkin A, Olivares EI. Progressive attenuation of visual global precedence across healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:893818. [PMID: 36204552 PMCID: PMC9530062 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.893818] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
In the perception of Navon hierarchical stimuli (e.g., large letters made up of small letters), young adults identify large letters faster than small ones (known as 'global advantage') and identify more slowly small letters when they form a different (or incongruent) large letter (known as 'unidirectional global interference'). Since some global/local perceptual alterations might be occurring with aging, we investigated whether these effects vary across healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, the Navon letter task was administered to 26 healthy elderly (HE), 21 adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 26 adults with AD. The same task was administered 1 year later, and different neuropsychological variables were incorporated into the analyses. The cross-sectional study revealed no global advantage but did reveal both global and local interferences in all groups when response times were analyzed. Regarding discrimination sensitivity, HE showed unidirectional global interference, while AD displayed better discrimination of local than global letters in the incongruent condition, which denotes less interference by global distractors than by local ones. The longitudinal study revealed that 1 year later the participants with MCI showed a slowdown in inhibiting local distractors in the global task, revealing a certain bias toward focus in their attention on small stimuli. The elders with AD reflected a generalized slowing of their responses with a clear bias toward local analysis of stimuli, also suggested by their better discrimination in the incongruent local task at the second moment of assessment. Furthermore, all response timing measures in the Navon task were correlated with several neuropsychological indexes of highly sensitive neuropsychological tests, suggesting that performance in this task may also have a potential diagnostic value for differentiating typical from atypical cognitive aging. All these results support the need for a multidomain approach to define neuropsychological markers of progression toward AD, including visual perceptual organization evaluated via measures of performance quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Álvarez-San Millán
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jaime Iglesias
- Department of Biological and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Anahí Gutkin
- Department of Social Psychology and Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ela I. Olivares
- Department of Biological and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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Hayre RK, Cragg L, Allen HA. Endogenous control is insufficient for preventing attentional capture in children and adults. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2022; 228:103611. [PMID: 35724537 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103611] [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: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 04/24/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Adults are known to have developed the ability to selectively focus their attention in a goal-driven (endogenous) manner but it is less clear at what stage in development (5-6 & 9-11 years) children can endogenously control their attention and whether they behave similarly to adults when managing distractions. In this study we administered a child-adapted cued visual search task to three age-groups: five- to six-year-olds (N = 45), nine- to eleven-year-olds (N = 42) and adults (N = 42). Participants were provided with a cue which either guided their attention towards or away from an upcoming target. On some trials, a singleton distracter was presented which participants needed to ignore. Participants completed three conditions where the cues were: 1) usually helpful (High Predictive), 2) usually unhelpful (Low Predictive) and 3) never helpful (Baseline) in guiding attention towards the target. We found that endogenous cue-utilisation develops with increasing age. Overall, nine- to eleven-year-olds and adults, but not five- to six-year-olds, utilised the endogenous cues in the High Predictive condition. However, all age-groups were unable to ignore the singleton distracter even when using endogenous control. Moreover, we found better cue-maintenance ability was related to poorer distracter-inhibition ability in early-childhood, but these skills were no longer related further on in development. We conclude that overall endogenous control is still developing in early-childhood, but an adult-like form of this skill has been acquired by mid-childhood. Furthermore, endogenous cue-utilisation was shown as insufficient for preventing attentional capture in both children and adults.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lucy Cragg
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - Harriet A Allen
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
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6
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The forest, the trees, and the leaves across adulthood: Age-related changes on a visual search task containing three-level hierarchical stimuli. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:1004-1015. [PMID: 35013995 PMCID: PMC9001546 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02438-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Selecting relevant visual information in complex scenes by processing either global information or local parts helps us act efficiently within our environment and achieve goals. A global advantage (faster global than local processing) and global interference (global processing interferes with local processing) comprise an evidentiary global precedence phenomenon in early adulthood. However, the impact of healthy aging on this phenomenon remains unclear. As such, we collected behavioral data during a visual search task, including three-levels hierarchical stimuli (i.e., global, intermediate, and local levels) with several hierarchical distractors, in 50 healthy adults (26 younger (mean age: 26 years) and 24 older (mean age: 62 years)). Results revealed that processing information presented at the global and intermediate levels was independent of age. Conversely, older adults were slower for local processing compared to the younger adults, suggesting lower efficiency to deal with visual distractors during detail-oriented visual search. Although healthy older adults continued exhibiting a global precedence phenomenon, they were disproportionately less efficient during local aspects of information processing, especially when multiple visual information was displayed. Our results could have important implications for many life situations by suggesting that visual information processing is impacted by healthy aging, even with similar visual stimuli objectively presented.
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7
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Hou M, Horne ED, de Chastelaine M, Rugg MD. Divided attention at retrieval does not influence neural correlates of recollection in young or older adults. Neuroimage 2022; 250:118918. [PMID: 35051582 PMCID: PMC8885896 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.118918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Revised: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Age-related decline in episodic memory has been partially attributed to older adults' reduced domain general processing resources. In the present study, we examined the effects of divided attention (DA) - a manipulation assumed to further deplete the already limited processing resources of older adults - on the neural correlates of recollection in young and older adults. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while they performed an associative recognition test in single and dual (tone detection) task conditions. Recollection effects were operationalized as greater BOLD activity elicited by test pairs correctly endorsed as 'intact' than pairs correctly or incorrectly endorsed as 'rearranged'. Detrimental effects of DA on associative recognition performance were identified in older but not young adults. The magnitudes of recollection effects did not differ between the single and dual (tone detection) tasks in either age group. Across the task conditions, age-invariant recollection effects were evident in most members of the core recollection network. However, while young adults demonstrated robust recollection effects in left angular gyrus, angular gyrus effects were undetectable in the older adults in either task condition. With the possible exception of this result, the findings suggest that DA did not influence processes supporting the retrieval and representation of associative information in either young or older adults, and converge with prior behavioral findings to suggest that episodic retrieval operations are little affected by DA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingzhu Hou
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA.
| | - Erin D Horne
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA; Center for BrainHealth and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA
| | - Marianne de Chastelaine
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA; School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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8
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Csizmadia P, Petro B, Kojouharova P, Gaál ZA, Scheiling K, Nagy B, Czigler I. Older Adults Automatically Detect Age of Older Adults' Photographs: A Visual Mismatch Negativity Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:707702. [PMID: 34489665 PMCID: PMC8417827 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.707702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The human face is one of the most frequently used stimuli in vMMN (visual mismatch negativity) research. Previous studies showed that vMMN is sensitive to facial emotions and gender, but investigations of age-related vMMN differences are relatively rare. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the models' age in photographs were automatically detected, even if the photographs were not parts of the ongoing task. Furthermore, we investigated age-related differences, and the possibility of different sensitivity to photographs of participants' own versus different ages. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to faces of young and old models in younger (N = 20; 18-30 years) and older groups (N = 20; 60-75 years). The faces appeared around the location of the field of a tracking task. In sequences the young or the old faces were either frequent (standards) or infrequent (deviants). According to the results, a regular sequence of models' age is automatically registered, and faces violating the models' age elicited the vMMN component. However, in this study vMMN emerged only in the older group to same-age deviants. This finding is explained by the less effective inhibition of irrelevant stimuli in the elderly, and corresponds to own-age bias effect of recognition studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petra Csizmadia
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Doctoral School of Psychology (Cognitive Science), Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Bela Petro
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Petia Kojouharova
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Zsófia Anna Gaál
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Katalin Scheiling
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Boglárka Nagy
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Doctoral School of Psychology (Cognitive Science), Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - István Czigler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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9
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Global precedence changes by environment: A systematic review and meta-analysis on effect of perceptual field variables on global-local visual processing. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 82:2348-2359. [PMID: 32189234 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-01997-1] [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: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual organization and, in particular, visual processing have been debated for many years. The global precedence effect in local-global visual processing, as introduced by David Navon, refers to the condition that global aspects of a scene are processed more rapidly than are local details. This perceptual dynamic is influenced by many factors that can be divided into two major categories: subjective or internal factors (e.g., age, disorder, culture) and the external factors called perceptual field variables (PFVs; e.g., stimulus size, eccentricity, sparsity). The aim of the current study was to identify the latter factors using a meta-analysis followed by a systematic literature review. In accordance of the standard framework suggested by PRISMA, 28 PFVs were observed through a literature search on articles published from 1982 to 2019, among which 10 factors have been qualified to be included in a meta-analysis. Subsequently, the random effects model proposed by Hedges and Olkin was used to estimate pooled effect sizes of PFVs. These effect sizes were used to compare and sort the PFVs on the basis of their intensity. According to Cohen's index, our analyses show that relevance, sparsity, and solidness type are categorized as small effects; visual field, level repetition, spatial frequency, and shape type are categorized as medium effects; and congruency, eccentricity, and size as large effect PFVs on global precedence.
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10
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Shalev N, Brosnan MB, Chechlacz M. Right Lateralized Brain Reserve Offsets Age-Related Deficits in Ignoring Distraction. Cereb Cortex Commun 2020; 1:tgaa049. [PMID: 33073236 PMCID: PMC7545855 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2020] [Revised: 07/11/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related deterioration of attention decreases the ability to stay focused on the task at hand due to less efficient selection of relevant information and increased distractibility in the face of irrelevant, but salient stimuli. While older (compared with younger) adults may have difficulty suppressing salient distractors, the extent of these challenges differs vastly across individuals. Cognitive reserve measured by proxies of cognitively enriching life experiences, such as education, occupation, and leisure activities, is thought to mitigate the effects of the aging process and account for variability in trajectories of cognitive decline. Based on combined behavioral and neuroimaging (voxel-based morphometry) analyses of demographic, cognitive, and neural markers of aging and cognitive reserve proxy measures, we examine here predictors of variability in the age-related changes in attention function, indexed by ability to suppress salient distraction. Our findings indicate that in healthy (neurotypical), aging gray matter volume within several right lateralized fronto-parietal brain regions varies according to both levels of cognitive reserve (education) and the capacity to effectively select visual stimuli amid salient distraction. Thus, we provide here novel experimental evidence supporting Robertson's theory of a right lateralized neural basis for cognitive reserve.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nir Shalev
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
| | - Méadhbh B Brosnan
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
| | - Magdalena Chechlacz
- Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
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11
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Ashinoff BK, Mayhew SD, Mevorach C. The same, but different: Preserved distractor suppression in old age is implemented through an age-specific reactive ventral fronto-parietal network. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:3938-3955. [PMID: 32573907 PMCID: PMC7469802 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Revised: 05/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown age-related impairments in the ability to suppress salient distractors. One possibility is that this is mediated by age-related impairments in the recruitment of the left intraparietal sulcus (Left IPS), which has been shown to mediate the suppression of salient distractors in healthy, young participants. Alternatively, this effect may be due to a shift in engagement from proactive control to reactive control, possibly to compensate for age-related impairments in proactive control. Another possibility is that this is due to changes in the functional specificity of brain regions that mediate salience suppression, expressed in changes in spontaneous connectivity of these regions. We assessed these possibilities by having participants engage in a proactive distractor suppression task while in an fMRI scanner. Although we did not find any age-related differences in behavior, the young (N = 15) and older (N = 15) cohorts engaged qualitatively distinctive brain networks to complete the task. Younger participants engaged the predicted proactive control network, including the Left IPS. On the other hand, older participants simultaneously engaged both a proactive and a reactive network, but this was not a consequence of reduced network specificity as resting state functional connectivity was largely comparable in both age groups. Furthermore, improved behavioral performance for older adults was associated with increased resting state functional connectivity between these two networks. Overall, the results of this study suggest that age-related differences in the recruitment of a left lateralized ventral fronto-parietal network likely reflect the specific recruitment of reactive control mechanisms for distractor inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon K. Ashinoff
- Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH), School of PsychologyUniversity of BirminghamEdgbastonUK
| | - Stephen D. Mayhew
- Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH), School of PsychologyUniversity of BirminghamEdgbastonUK
| | - Carmel Mevorach
- Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH), School of PsychologyUniversity of BirminghamEdgbastonUK
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12
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Oliver W, Renzi-Hammond LM, Thorne SA, Clementz B, Miller LS, Hammond BR. Neural Activation During Visual Attention Differs in Individuals with High versus Low Macular Pigment Density. Mol Nutr Food Res 2019; 63:e1801052. [PMID: 30919588 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201801052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2018] [Revised: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
SCOPE The neural efficiency hypothesis for lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z) suggests that higher levels of L+Z in the central nervous system (CNS) are predictive of stronger stimulus-specific brain responses. Past research suggests that supplementing L+Z can improve neural processing speed and cognitive function across multiple domains, which supports this hypothesis. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which CNS L+Z levels predict brain responses using an attentionally taxing task. METHODS AND RESULTS Macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is measured at baseline in 85 participants ranging in age from 18-92 years. Brain activation is measured using dense array electroencephalography. Stimuli evoking the signal include a grating array of vertical bars, oscillating at four driving frequencies. Significant stimulus-specific interactions are detected between attend condition, location, and age (p < .002) for unattended image locations, and between age and location (p < .008) for attended locations. Although no differences are found across age by MPOD, this measure is found to be predictive of neural power at parafoveal bar locations (R2 .080). CONCLUSION CNS L+Z status is related to differences in brain activation in conditions designed to stress visual attention. These differences are strongest for older subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Oliver
- Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Lisa M Renzi-Hammond
- Vision Sciences Laboratory, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.,Human Biofactors Laboratory, Institute of Gerontology, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - S Anna Thorne
- Vision Sciences Laboratory, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.,Athens Community Council on Aging, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Brett Clementz
- Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - L Stephen Miller
- Neuropsychology and Memory Assessment Laboratory, Clinical Psychology Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Billy R Hammond
- Vision Sciences Laboratory, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.,Human Biofactors Laboratory, Institute of Gerontology, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
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13
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Grzeschik R, Conroy-Dalton R, Innes A, Shanker S, Wiener JM. The contribution of visual attention and declining verbal memory abilities to age-related route learning deficits. Cognition 2019; 187:50-61. [PMID: 30826535 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2018] [Revised: 02/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Our ability to learn unfamiliar routes declines in typical and atypical ageing. The reasons for this decline, however, are not well understood. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate how ageing affects people's ability to attend to navigationally relevant information and to select unique objects as landmarks. We created short routes through a virtual environment, each comprised of four intersections with two objects each, and we systematically manipulated the saliency and uniqueness of these objects. While salient objects might be easier to memorise than non-salient objects, they cannot be used as reliable landmarks if they appear more than once along the route. As cognitive ageing affects executive functions and control of attention, we hypothesised that the process of selecting navigationally relevant objects as landmarks might be affected as well. The behavioural data showed that younger participants outperformed the older participants and the eye-movement data revealed some systematic differences between age groups. Specifically, older adults spent less time looking at the unique, and therefore navigationally relevant, landmark objects. Both young and older participants, however, effectively directed gaze towards the unique and away from the non-unique objects, even if these were more salient. These findings highlight specific age-related differences in the control of attention that could contribute to declining route learning abilities in older age. Interestingly, route-learning performance in the older age group was more variable than in the young age group with some older adults showing performance similar to the young group. These individual differences in route learning performance were strongly associated with verbal and episodic memory abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Grzeschik
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | | | - Anthea Innes
- Salford Institute for Dementia, University of Salford, UK
| | - Shanti Shanker
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK
| | - Jan M Wiener
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK
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14
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Tsvetanov KA, Ye Z, Hughes L, Samu D, Treder MS, Wolpe N, Tyler LK, Rowe JB. Activity and Connectivity Differences Underlying Inhibitory Control Across the Adult Life Span. J Neurosci 2018; 38:7887-7900. [PMID: 30049889 PMCID: PMC6125816 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2919-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2017] [Revised: 06/15/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Inhibitory control requires precise regulation of activity and connectivity within multiple brain networks. Previous studies have typically evaluated age-related changes in regional activity or changes in interregional interactions. Instead, we test the hypothesis that activity and connectivity make distinct, complementary contributions to performance across the life span and the maintenance of successful inhibitory control systems. A representative sample of healthy human adults in a large, population-based life span cohort performed an integrated Stop-Signal (SS)/No-Go task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (n = 119; age range, 18-88 years). Individual differences in inhibitory control were measured in terms of the SS reaction time (SSRT), using the blocked integration method. Linear models and independent components analysis revealed that individual differences in SSRT correlated with both activity and connectivity in a distributed inhibition network, comprising prefrontal, premotor, and motor regions. Importantly, this pattern was moderated by age, such that the association between inhibitory control and connectivity, but not activity, differed with age. Multivariate statistics and out-of-sample validation tests of multifactorial functional organization identified differential roles of activity and connectivity in determining an individual's SSRT across the life span. We propose that age-related differences in adaptive cognitive control are best characterized by the joint consideration of multifocal activity and connectivity within distributed brain networks. These insights may facilitate the development of new strategies to support cognitive ability in old age.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The preservation of cognitive and motor control is crucial for maintaining well being across the life span. We show that such control is determined by both activity and connectivity within distributed brain networks. In a large, population-based cohort, we used a novel whole-brain multivariate approach to estimate the functional components of inhibitory control, in terms of their activity and connectivity. Both activity and connectivity in the inhibition network changed with age. But only the association between performance and connectivity, not activity, differed with age. The results suggest that adaptive control is best characterized by the joint consideration of multifocal activity and connectivity. These insights may facilitate the development of new strategies to maintain cognitive ability across the life span in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamen A Tsvetanov
- Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain,
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, United Kingdom
| | - Zheng Ye
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China
- Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, People's Republic of China
| | - Laura Hughes
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, United Kingdom
| | - David Samu
- Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - Matthias S Treder
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
- School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, United Kingdom
| | - Noham Wolpe
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, United Kingdom
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom, and
| | - Lorraine K Tyler
- Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - James B Rowe
- Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), Department of Psychology and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, United Kingdom
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom, and
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15
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Amer T, Campbell KL, Hasher L. Cognitive Control As a Double-Edged Sword. Trends Cogn Sci 2018; 20:905-915. [PMID: 27863886 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2016] [Revised: 09/22/2016] [Accepted: 10/04/2016] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive control, the ability to limit attention to goal-relevant information, aids performance on a wide range of laboratory tasks. However, there are many day-to-day functions which require little to no control and others which even benefit from reduced control. We review behavioral and neuroimaging evidence demonstrating that reduced control can enhance the performance of both older and, under some circumstances, younger adults. Using healthy aging as a model, we demonstrate that decreased cognitive control benefits performance on tasks ranging from acquiring and using environmental information to generating creative solutions to problems. Cognitive control is thus a double-edged sword - aiding performance on some tasks when fully engaged, and many others when less engaged.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tarek Amer
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Karen L Campbell
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Lynn Hasher
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
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16
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17
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Hartmeyer S, Grzeschik R, Wolbers T, Wiener JM. The Effects of Attentional Engagement on Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: An Aging Study. Front Aging Neurosci 2017; 9:235. [PMID: 28775689 PMCID: PMC5517407 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2016] [Accepted: 07/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen Hartmeyer
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityPoole, United Kingdom
| | - Ramona Grzeschik
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityPoole, United Kingdom.,Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth UniversityPoole, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Wolbers
- German Centre for Neurodegenerative DiseasesMagdeburg, Germany
| | - Jan M Wiener
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityPoole, United Kingdom.,Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth UniversityPoole, United Kingdom
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18
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Mattan BD, Quinn KA, Acaster SL, Jennings RM, Rotshtein P. Prioritization of Self-Relevant Perspectives in Ageing. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2017; 70:1033-1052. [DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1127399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective taking, despite generally poorer perspective-taking capacity in older adults. In one perceptual matching task and two visual perspective-taking paradigms, we examined age differences in sensitivity to avatars representing self and other. In the matching task, older (60–83 years) and younger (18–20 years) adults were similarly biased toward the self- versus other-associated avatar. In the perspective-taking tasks, participants viewed these avatars within a virtual room. Task-relevant perspectives were either the same (i.e., congruent) or different (i.e., incongruent). In the 3PP–3PP task, both avatars were present, and participants adopted the perspective of one or the other. As in the matching task, young and old were similarly biased toward the self-associated avatar. However, age differences emerged in the 1PP–3PP task, which presented only one avatar per trial (varying between self and other), and participants responded based on their own first-person perspective or the avatar's. In summary, age modulated the ability to take perspectives primarily when participants’ own first-person perspective was task relevant. Relative to younger adults, older adults prioritized the self (vs. other) avatar more during initial perspective computation and the first-person (vs. third-person) perspective more when selecting between incongruent perspectives.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kimberly A. Quinn
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | | | - Pia Rotshtein
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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19
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Effects of paired-object affordance in search tasks across the adult lifespan. Brain Cogn 2016; 105:22-33. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2015] [Revised: 02/13/2016] [Accepted: 03/27/2016] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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20
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Dowlati E, Adams SE, Stiles AB, Moran RJ. Aging into Perceptual Control: A Dynamic Causal Modeling for fMRI Study of Bistable Perception. Front Hum Neurosci 2016; 10:141. [PMID: 27064235 PMCID: PMC4814553 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2016] [Accepted: 03/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Aging is accompanied by stereotyped changes in functional brain activations, for example a cortical shift in activity patterns from posterior to anterior regions is one hallmark revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of aging cognition. Whether these neuronal effects of aging could potentially contribute to an amelioration of or resistance to the cognitive symptoms associated with psychopathology remains to be explored. We used a visual illusion paradigm to address whether aging affects the cortical control of perceptual beliefs and biases. Our aim was to understand the effective connectivity associated with volitional control of ambiguous visual stimuli and to test whether greater top-down control of early visual networks emerged with advancing age. Using a bias training paradigm for ambiguous images we found that older participants (n = 16) resisted experimenter-induced visual bias compared to a younger cohort (n = 14) and that this resistance was associated with greater activity in prefrontal and temporal cortices. By applying Dynamic Causal Models for fMRI we uncovered a selective recruitment of top-down connections from the middle temporal to Lingual gyrus (LIN) by the older cohort during the perceptual switch decision following bias training. In contrast, our younger cohort did not exhibit any consistent connectivity effects but instead showed a loss of driving inputs to orbitofrontal sources following training. These findings suggest that perceptual beliefs are more readily controlled by top-down strategies in older adults and introduce age-dependent neural mechanisms that may be important for understanding aberrant belief states associated with psychopathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Dowlati
- Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Roanoke, VA, USA
| | - Sarah E Adams
- Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute Roanoke, VA, USA
| | | | - Rosalyn J Moran
- Virginia Tech Carilion School of MedicineRoanoke, VA, USA; Virginia Tech Carilion Research InstituteRoanoke, VA, USA; Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia TechBlacksburg, VA, USA
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21
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Wiegand I, Finke K, Töllner T, Starman K, Müller HJ, Conci M. Age-related decline in global form suppression. Biol Psychol 2015; 112:116-24. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2015] [Revised: 09/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/15/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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22
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Weinbach N, Henik A. Alerting enhances attentional bias for salient stimuli: Evidence from a global/local processing task. Cognition 2014; 133:414-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2014] [Revised: 06/11/2014] [Accepted: 07/15/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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23
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Age mediation of frontoparietal activation during visual feature search. Neuroimage 2014; 102 Pt 2:262-74. [PMID: 25102420 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.07.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2014] [Revised: 06/11/2014] [Accepted: 07/26/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Activation of frontal and parietal brain regions is associated with attentional control during visual search. We used fMRI to characterize age-related differences in frontoparietal activation in a highly efficient feature search task, detection of a shape singleton. On half of the trials, a salient distractor (a color singleton) was present in the display. The hypothesis was that frontoparietal activation mediated the relation between age and attentional capture by the salient distractor. Participants were healthy, community-dwelling individuals, 21 younger adults (19-29 years of age) and 21 older adults (60-87 years of age). Top-down attention, in the form of target predictability, was associated with an improvement in search performance that was comparable for younger and older adults. The increase in search reaction time (RT) associated with the salient distractor (attentional capture), standardized to correct for generalized age-related slowing, was greater for older adults than for younger adults. On trials with a color singleton distractor, search RT increased as a function of increasing activation in frontal regions, for both age groups combined, suggesting increased task difficulty. Mediational analyses disconfirmed the hypothesized model, in which frontal activation mediated the age-related increase in attentional capture, but supported an alternative model in which age was a mediator of the relation between frontal activation and capture.
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