Neurocognitive Psychology Unit, University of Trier, Germany.
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Brain Res. 2021 Feb 1;1752:147238. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.147238. Epub 2021 Jan 3.
The ability to monitor internal bodily and cognitive processes is essential for everyday functioning and independence in older adults, because it allows for adjustments when lapses in performance are imminent. In the present study, age-related morphological changes to the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP), an electrophysiological cortical representation of cardiac signals, and its association with self-reported everyday cognition were examined. A community sample of older adults showed an increased HEP amplitude, which could reflect a stronger representation of early stages of cardiac interoception, and a more anterior scalp distribution of the HEP, suggesting a more widespread configuration of the underlying neural generators, compared to a group of young adults. Furthermore, in older adults, HEP amplitude was negatively correlated with self-estimated everyday cognitive functioning. Older adults with pronounced cortical representations of peripheral signals may thus be more likely to take note of lapses in their own bodily and cognitive function, leading to lower estimates of their cognitive abilities. These results provide novel insights into age-related changes in interoceptive processing and their association with metacognitive judgments, with potentially far-reaching implications for cognitive aging and age-related cognitive decline.
监测内部身体和认知过程的能力对于老年人的日常功能和独立性至关重要，因为它可以在性能下降即将发生时进行调整。在本研究中，研究了与年龄相关的心跳诱发电位（HEP）的形态变化，HEP 是心脏信号的一种电生理皮质代表，以及其与自我报告的日常认知的关联。与年轻成年人相比，老年人的社区样本显示出HEP 振幅增加，这可能反映了心脏内感受的早期阶段的更强表示，以及 HEP 的头皮分布更靠前，表明潜在的神经发生器的配置更加广泛。此外，在老年人中，HEP 振幅与自我估计的日常认知功能呈负相关。因此，具有明显的外周信号皮质表示的老年人可能更容易注意到自己身体和认知功能的下降，从而导致对自己认知能力的估计降低。这些结果为内感受处理的年龄相关变化及其与元认知判断的关联提供了新的见解，对认知老化和与年龄相关的认知能力下降具有潜在的深远影响。
