Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany; Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany; Occupational and Engineering Psychology, Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.
Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany; Institute for Work, Learning and Aging, Bochum, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2018 Oct;119:424-433. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.003. Epub 2018 Sep 12.
With large inter-individual variability, older adults show a decline in cognitive performance in dual-task situations. Differences in attentional processes, working memory, response selection, and general speed of information processing have been discussed as potential sources of this decline and its between-subject variability. In comparison to young subjects (n = 36, mean age: 25 years), we analyzed the performance of a large group of healthy elderly subjects (n = 138, mean age: 70 years) in a conflicting dual-task situation (PRP paradigm). Based on their dual-task costs (DTCs), the older participants were clustered in three groups of high, medium, and low performing elderly. DTCs differed between groups and increased linearly from young subjects to low performing elderly. The groups did not differ with respect to ERP-components related to task preparation (CNV) and recall of stimulus-response mappings (P2). Peak latencies of the frontocentral P2 and N2 were shorter in young as compared to older adults but did not differ between elderly performance groups. However, differences in N2 amplitude between short and long SOA were correlated with the corresponding DTCs, suggesting more efficient S-R implementation in subjects with lower DTCs. Based on our results, between-subject differences in dual-task interference can be explained in terms of individual differences in selection of an appropriate response in dual-task situations.
老年人在双重任务情况下的认知表现会出现个体间的较大差异，表现为下降。注意力过程、工作记忆、反应选择和信息处理的总体速度的差异被认为是这种下降及其个体间变异性的潜在来源。与年轻受试者（n=36，平均年龄：25 岁）相比，我们分析了一大群健康老年人（n=138，平均年龄：70 岁）在冲突的双重任务情况下（PRP 范式）的表现。基于他们的双重任务成本（DTC），老年参与者被分为高、中、低表现三组。DTC 在组间存在差异，并从年轻受试者到低表现老年人呈线性增加。这些组在与任务准备相关的 ERP 成分（CNV）和刺激-反应映射的回忆（P2）方面没有差异。与老年人相比，年轻人的额中央 P2 和 N2 的峰值潜伏期更短，但在老年人的表现组之间没有差异。然而，短和长 SOA 之间的 N2 幅度差异与相应的 DTC 相关，表明在 DTC 较低的受试者中，S-R 的实施更有效。基于我们的结果，双重任务干扰的个体间差异可以用在双重任务情况下选择适当反应的个体差异来解释。
