Niu Ya-Nan, Zhu Xinyi, Li Juan
Center on Aging Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2017 May 29;8:803. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00803. eCollection 2017.
The functional decline in action among older adults is caused not only by physical weakness but also by cognitive decline. In this study, we aimed to compare the cognitive effects of age between intention-based and stimulus-based action modes electrophysiologically. Because age-related declines in cognitive function might proceed distinctly according to specific action modes and processes, four specific cognitive processes, , and , were investigated. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during a modified acquisition-test paradigm in young (mean age = 21, = 2) and old (mean age = 69, = 5) groups. A temporal bisection task and a movement pre-cuing task were used during the acquisition and test phases, respectively. Using ERP indices including readiness potential (RP), P3, N2 and contingent negative variation (CNV) to identify these four specific processes for the two action modes, we revealed the effects of age on each ERP index. The results showed similar patterns of waveforms but consistently decreasing amplitudes of all four ERP indices in the old age group compared with the young age group, which indicates not only generally declining functions of action preparation in older adults but also age effects specific to the action modes and processes that might otherwise be mixed together under confounding experimental conditions. Particularly, an interference effect indexed by the differences in the amplitudes of CNV between congruent and incongruent tasks was observed in the young age group, which is consistent with previous behavioral reports. However, this effect was absent in the old age group, indicating a specific age-related deficit in the process of intention-based action, which might be caused by an age-related deficit in associative memory. In sum, this study investigated the cognitive processes of two action modes from a developmental perspective and suggests the importance of adding associative memory training to interventions for older adults with the aim of improving intention-based action.
老年人行动功能的衰退不仅是由身体虚弱引起的，还与认知能力下降有关。在本研究中，我们旨在通过电生理学方法比较基于意图和基于刺激的行动模式下年龄对认知的影响。由于认知功能的年龄相关衰退可能会根据特定的行动模式和过程而明显不同，因此我们研究了四个特定的认知过程，即[此处四个特定认知过程原文未给出具体内容]。我们在年轻组（平均年龄 = 21岁，n = 2）和老年组（平均年龄 = 69岁，n = 5）的改良习得 - 测试范式中记录了事件相关电位（ERP）。在习得阶段和测试阶段分别使用了时间二分任务和运动预提示任务。通过使用包括准备电位（RP）、P3、N2和关联性负变（CNV）在内的ERP指标来识别这两种行动模式的四个特定过程，我们揭示了年龄对每个ERP指标的影响。结果显示，老年组与年轻组的波形模式相似，但所有四个ERP指标的幅度持续下降，这表明老年人不仅行动准备功能普遍衰退，而且行动模式和过程存在特定的年龄效应，否则在混杂的实验条件下这些效应可能会混在一起。特别是，在年轻组中观察到了由一致性和不一致性任务之间CNV幅度差异所索引的干扰效应，这与之前的行为报告一致。然而，老年组中没有这种效应，这表明基于意图的行动过程中存在特定的年龄相关缺陷，这可能是由联想记忆的年龄相关缺陷引起的。总之，本研究从发展的角度研究了两种行动模式下的认知过程，并建议在针对老年人的干预措施中增加联想记忆训练，以改善基于意图的行动。
