Neuroscience Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 Japan.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2010 Jan;75(1):39-43. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2009.11.001. Epub 2009 Nov 10.
Aging involves selective changes in attentional control. However, its precise effect on visual attention is difficult to discern from behavioural studies alone. In this paper, we employ a recently developed phase-locking measure of synchrony as an indicator of top-down/bottom-up control of attention to assess attentional control in the elderly. Fourteen participants (63-74 years) searched for a target item (coloured, oriented rectangular bar) among a display set of distractors. For the feature search condition, where none of the distractors shared a feature with the target, search time did not increase with display set size (two, or four items). For the conjunctive search condition, where each distractor shared either a colour or orientation feature with the target, search time increased with display size. Phase-locking analysis revealed a significant increase in high gamma-band (36-56 Hz) synchrony indicating greater bottom-up control for feature than conjunctive search. In view of our earlier study on younger (21-32 years) adults (Phillips and Takeda, 2009), these results suggest that older participants are more likely to use bottom-up control of attention, possibly triggered by their greater susceptibility to attentional capture, than younger participants.
衰老涉及注意力控制的选择性变化。然而，仅从行为研究很难辨别其对视觉注意力的确切影响。在本文中，我们采用了一种新开发的锁相测量同步性的方法作为自上而下/自下而上注意力控制的指标，来评估老年人的注意力控制。14 名参与者（63-74 岁）在一组分心物中搜索目标项目（彩色、定向矩形条）。在特征搜索条件下，没有一个分心物与目标共享特征，搜索时间不会随显示集大小（两个或四个项目）的增加而增加。在联合搜索条件下，每个分心物与目标共享颜色或方向特征，搜索时间随显示集大小的增加而增加。锁相分析显示，高伽马波段（36-56Hz）同步性显著增加，表明特征搜索比联合搜索具有更强的自下而上控制。鉴于我们之前对年轻（21-32 岁）成年人的研究（Phillips 和 Takeda，2009），这些结果表明，与年轻参与者相比，年长参与者更有可能使用自下而上的注意力控制，这可能是由于他们更容易受到注意力捕获的影响。
