Wlotko Edward W, Lee Chia-Lin, Federmeier Kara D
University of Illinois.
Lang Linguist Compass. 2010 Aug 1;4(8):623-638. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-818X.2010.00224.x.
Normal aging brings increased richness in knowledge and experience as well as declines in cognitive abilities. Event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of language comprehension corroborate findings showing that the structure and organization of semantic knowledge remains relatively stable with age. Highlighting the advantages of the temporal and functional specificity of ERPs, this survey focuses on age-related changes in higher-level processes required for the successful comprehension of meaning representations built from multiple words. Older adults rely on different neural pathways and cognitive processes during normal, everyday comprehension, including a shift away from the predictive use of sentential context, differential recruitment of neural resources, and reduced engagement of controlled processing. Within age groups, however, there are important individual differences that, for example, differentiate a subset of older adults whose processing patterns more closely resemble that of young adults, providing a window into cognitive skills and abilities that may mediate or moderate age-related declines.
正常衰老会带来知识和经验的日益丰富，同时认知能力也会下降。对语言理解的事件相关脑电位（ERP）研究证实了相关发现，即语义知识的结构和组织随着年龄增长保持相对稳定。本综述突出了ERP在时间和功能特异性方面的优势，重点关注成功理解由多个单词构建的意义表征所需的高级过程中与年龄相关的变化。在正常的日常理解过程中，老年人依赖不同的神经通路和认知过程，包括从对句子语境的预测性使用转变、神经资源的不同募集以及受控加工参与度的降低。然而，在年龄组内部存在重要的个体差异，例如，区分出一部分加工模式更类似于年轻人的老年人，这为了解可能介导或调节与年龄相关衰退的认知技能和能力提供了一个窗口。
