ERP Evidence for Scarce Rule Representation in Older Adults Following Short, but Not Long Preparatory Intervals

The focus of the present study was to examine the cognitive processes comprising advance preparation – rule representation, task-set updating, and task-set reconfiguration – in young (20–25 years) and older adults (61–83 years). Specifically, this study aimed at further characterizing age-related differences in advance preparation, and evaluating how additional time to prepare might reduce behavioral costs in older adults. In line with previous findings, reaction time mixing costs were slightly larger for older compared to young adults, whereas behavioral switch costs were age-invariant. Following short preparation (600 ms), smaller antero-frontal event-related potential (ERP) correlates of rule representation were associated with pronounced congruency costs in older adults. Centro-parietal ERP correlates of task-set updating and task-set reconfiguration were not delayed, but smaller in magnitude for older compared to young adults. Longer preparation (1200 ms) enabled older adults to re-activate relevant task rules, as evident in reduced congruency costs, and temporally sustained ERP correlates of task-set updating and rule representation well beyond 600 ms. Age-invariant switch costs appear related to additional, potentially compensatory frontal activity recruited by older adults to overcome difficulties in task-set reconfiguration

Motivational Influences on Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Control Across the Adult Lifespan

Cognitive control refers to the ability to regulate cognitive processing according to the tasks at hand, especially when these are demanding. It includes maintaining and updating relevant information in working memory, inhibiting irrelevant information, and flexibly switching between tasks. Performance monitoring denotes the processing of feedback from the environment and the detection of errors or other unexpected events and signals when cognitive control needs to be exerted. These two aspects of behavioral adaptation critically rely on the integrity of the frontal lobes, which are known to show pronounced age-related performance decrements. By contrast, there is evidence that processing of rewards remains relatively intact across the adult lifespan. Hence, motivation may play an important role in modulating or even counteracting age-related changes in cognitive control functions. To answer this question, neuroscientific data can be particularly useful to uncover potential underlying mechanisms beyond behavioral outcome. The aims of this article are twofold: First, to review and systematize the extant literature on how motivational incentives can modulate performance monitoring and cognitive control in young and older adults. Second, to demonstrate that important pieces of empirical data are currently missing for the evaluation of this central question, specifically in old age. Hence, we would like to stimulate further research uncovering potential mechanisms underlying motivation-cognition interactions in young and in particular in older adults and investigating whether or not those can help to ameliorate age-related impairments

Is the dolphin a fish? ERP evidence for the impact of typicality during early visual processing in ultra-rapid semantic categorization in autism spectrum disorder

Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. JCC was fnanced by national funding through FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tec nologia and I. P. on the scope of Norma Transitória DL57/2016/CP1439/CT02 and through the Research Center for Psychological Science of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon (UIDB/04527/2020; UIDP/04527/2020). A-KB was supported by the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative (Potentialbere ich Cognitive Science) of the Federal Ministry of Science, Further Education and Culture (MWWK).BACKGROUND: Neurotypical individuals categorize items even during ultra-rapid presentations (20 ms; see Thorpe et al. Nature 381: 520, 1996). In cognitively able autistic adults, these semantic categorization processes may be impaired and/or may require additional time, specifically for the categorization of atypical compared to typical items. Here, we investigated how typicality structures influence ultra-rapid categorization in cognitively able autistic and neurotypical male adults. METHODS: Images representing typical or atypical exemplars of two different categories (food/animals) were presented for 23.5 vs. 82.3 ms (short/long). We analyzed detection rates, reaction times, and the event-related potential components dN150, N1, P2, N2, and P3 for each group. RESULTS: Behavioral results suggest slower and less correct responses to atypical compared to typical images. This typicality effect was larger for the category with less distinct boundaries (food) and observed in both groups. However, electrophysiological data indicate a different time course of typicality effects, suggesting that neurotypical adults categorize atypical images based on simple features (P2), whereas cognitively able autistic adults categorize later, based on arbitrary features of atypical images (P3). CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence that all three factors under investigation - category, typicality, and presentation time - modulated specific aspects of semantic categorization. Additionally, we observed a qualitatively different pattern in the autistic adults, which suggests that they relied on different cognitive processes to complete the task.publishersversionpublishe

ERPs and their brain sources in perceptual and conceptual prospective memory tasks: commonalities and differences between the two tasks

The present study examined whether Event-Related Potential (ERP) components and their neural generators are common to perceptual and conceptual prospective memory (PM) tasks or specific to the form of PM cue involved. We used Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to study the contributions of brain source activities to scalp ERPs across the different phases of two event-based PM-tasks: (1) holding intentions during a delay (monitoring) (2) detecting the correct context to perform the delayed intention (cue detection) and (3) carrying out the action (realisation of delayed intentions). Results showed that monitoring for both perceptual and conceptual PM-tasks was characterised by an enhanced early occipital negativity (N200). In addition the conceptual PM-task showed a long-lasting effect of monitoring significant around 700 ms. Perceptual PM-task cues elicited an N300 enhancement associated with cue detection, whereas a midline N400-like response was evoked by conceptual PM-task cues. The Prospective Positivity associated with realisation of delayed intentions was observed in both conceptual and perceptual tasks. A common frontal-midline brain source contributed to the Prospective Positivity in both tasks and a strong contribution from parieto-frontal brain sources was observed only for the perceptually cued PM-task. These findings support the idea that: (1) The enhanced N200 can be understood as a neural correlate of a ‘retrieval mode’ for perceptual and conceptual PM-tasks, and additional strategic monitoring is implemented according the nature of the PM task; (2) ERPs associated with cue detection are specific to the nature of the PM cues; (3) Prospective Positivity reflects a general PM process, but the specific brain sources contributing to it depend upon the nature of the PM task

Hippocampal involvement in glucose facilitation of recognition memory : event-related potential components in a dual-task paradigm

BACKGROUND: Glucose administration may facilitate hippocampus-mediated recognition memory (‘remember’ rather than familiarity ‘know’ responses). OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of this phenomenon in a cohort of older individuals. METHODS: In this double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study, 12 older participants (mean age = 69.33 ± 1.69 years) completed the remember-know paradigm both with and without a concurrent tracking task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). RESULTS: Counter to predictions, glucose reduced overall accuracy. No treatment effects were found for proportion of Remember, Know and Guess responses, although there was a trend towards greater accuracy for ‘Remember’ responses following glucose. There was weak evidence for dissociation of drink effects on tracking with glucose being associated with preferential allocation of resources to ‘Remember’ over ‘Know’ responses. At P3 and F3 electrode sites, a significantly greater left parietal (LP) recollection effect and greater FN400 effect respectively were found for glucose. CONCLUSIONS: These findings do not support task effort modulation of the memory-enhancing effects of glucose. There was evidence of a greater glucose facilitatory effect for hippocampus-mediated LP recollection

Age-related differences in brain electrical activity during extended continuous face recognition in younger children, older children and adults

To examine the development of recognition memory in primary-school children, 36 healthy younger children (8-9years old) and 36 healthy older children (11-12years old) participated in an ERP study with an extended continuous face recognition task (Study 1). Each face of a series of 30 faces was shown randomly six times interspersed with distracter faces. The children were required to make old vs. new decisions. Older children responded faster than younger children, but younger children exhibited a steeper decrease in latencies across the five repetitions. Older children exhibited better accuracy for new faces, but there were no age differences in recognition accuracy for repeated faces. For the N2, N400 and late positive complex (LPC), we analyzed the old/new effects (repetition 1 vs. new presentation) and the extended repetition effects (repetitions 1 through 5). Compared to older children, younger children exhibited larger frontocentral N2 and N400 old/new effects. For extended face repetitions, negativity of the N2 and N400 decreased in a linear fashion in both age groups. For the LPC, an ERP component thought to reflect recollection, no significant old/new or extended repetition effects were found. Employing the same face recognition paradigm in 20 adults (Study 2), we found a significant N400 old/new effect at lateral frontal sites and a significant LPC repetition effect at parietal sites, with LPC amplitudes increasing linearly with the number of repetitions. This study clearly demonstrates differential developmental courses for the N400 and LPC pertaining to recognition memory for faces. It is concluded that face recognition in children is mediated by early and probably more automatic than conscious recognition processes. In adults, the LPC extended repetition effect indicates that adult face recognition memory is related to a conscious and graded recollection process rather than to an automatic recognition process

Adaptiveness in proactive control engagement in children and adults

Age-related progress in cognitive control reflects more frequent engagement of proactive control during childhood. As proactive preparation for an upcoming task is adaptive only when the task can be reliably predicted, progress in proactive control engagement may rely on more efficient use of contextual cue reliability. Developmental progress may also reflect increasing efficiency in how proactive control is engaged, making this control mode more advantageous with age. To address these possibilities, 6-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and adults completed three versions of a cued task-switching paradigm in which contextual cue reliability was manipulated. When contextual cues were reliable (but not unreliable or uninformative), all age groups showed greater pupil dilation and a more pronounced (pre)cue-locked posterior positivity associated with faster response times, suggesting adaptive engagement of proactive task selection. However, adults additionally showed a larger contingent negative variation (CNV) predicting a further reduction in response times with reliable cues, suggesting motor preparation in adults but not children. Thus, early developing use of contextual cue reliability promotes adaptiveness in proactive control engagement from early childhood; yet, less efficient motor preparation in children makes this control mode overall less advantageous in childhood than adulthood

Differential effects of emotional cues on components of prospective memory: an ERP study

So far, little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with emotion effects on prospective memory (PM) performance. Thus, this study aimed at disentangling possible mechanisms for the effects of emotional valence of PM cues on the distinct phases composing PM by investigating event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants were engaged in an ongoing N-back task while being required to perform a PM task. The emotional valence of both the ongoing pictures and the PM cues was manipulated (pleasant, neutral, unpleasant). ERPs were recorded during the PM phases, such as encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of the intention. A recognition task including PM cues and ongoing stimuli was also performed at the end of the sessions. ERP results suggest that emotional PM cues not only trigger an automatic, bottom-up, capture of attention, but also boost a greater allocation of top-down processes. These processes seem to be recruited to hold attention toward the emotional stimuli and to retrieve the intention from memory, likely because of the motivational significance of the emotional stimuli. Moreover, pleasant PM cues seemed to modulate especially the prospective component, as revealed by changes in the amplitude of the ERP correlates of strategic monitoring as a function of the relevance of the valence for the PM task. Unpleasant pictures seemed to modulate especially the retrospective component, as revealed by the largest old/new effect being elicited by unpleasant PM pictures in the recognition task

Memory development: implications for adults recalling childhood experiences in the courtroom

Adults frequently provide compelling, detailed accounts of early childhood experiences in the courtroom. Judges and jurors are asked to decide guilt or innocence based solely on these decades-old memories using 'common sense' notions about memory. However, these notions are not in agreement with findings from neuroscientific and behavioural studies of memory development. Without expert guidance, judges and jurors may have difficulty in properly adjudicating the weight of memory evidence in cases involving adult recollections of childhood experiences