Xu Nannan, Hou Xiaopu, Zhao Beibei, Zhu Zude, Yang Yiming
School of Linguistic Sciences and Arts, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221009, China.
School of Linguistic Sciences and Arts, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221009, China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Competence, Xuzhou, 221009, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xuzhou, 221009, China.
Neurosci Lett. 2017 Apr 3;645:74-79. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.02.074. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether age-related brain response alterations during sentence comprehension exist when verbal fluency and intelligence are controlled for. Twenty-four younger and twenty-four older adults with matched verbal fluency, verbal intelligence, years of education, and gender ratio were recruited. They were asked to read congruent (CON) and incongruent (INCON) sentences to make semantic acceptability judgments. A significant group by condition interaction on accuracy was found, showing a significant congruency effect in younger, but not older adults. The ERP results revealed a dynamic temporal-spatial change in older adults. The congruency related N400 effect was reduced and delayed significantly in the older adults compared to the younger adults, and accompanied by different distribution patterns across time windows. The late positive component with more positive-going in the INCON condition than the CON condition was found in older adults only, which did not correlate with the performance, however. The results suggest that with age, there is a decline in semantic processing during sentence comprehension.
本研究的目的是探讨在控制言语流畅性和智力的情况下，句子理解过程中与年龄相关的大脑反应变化是否存在。招募了24名年轻成年人和24名年长成年人，他们在言语流畅性、言语智力、受教育年限和性别比例方面相匹配。要求他们阅读语义一致（CON）和语义不一致（INCON）的句子，并做出语义可接受性判断。发现了一个显著的条件与组的交互作用对准确性的影响，表明年轻成年人中有显著的一致性效应，而年长成年人中则没有。ERP结果揭示了年长成年人在时间-空间上的动态变化。与年轻成年人相比，年长成年人中与一致性相关的N400效应显著降低且延迟，并且在不同时间窗口呈现出不同的分布模式。仅在年长成年人中发现了晚期正成分，在INCON条件下比CON条件下更正向，但这与表现无关。结果表明，随着年龄的增长，句子理解过程中的语义处理能力会下降。
