The College of Social Work, the Ohio State University, Columbus, United States.
Department of Psychological Sciences, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, United States.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2022 Mar;29(2):318-348. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2021.1874278. Epub 2021 Jan 21.
Conflict processing and interference control have been popular topics of research in the study of pathological brain aging. However, there remains much to be learned about how these cognitive processes are altered in the course of healthy brain aging. Moreover, few studies have combined multiple measures of interference control using factorial designs. The aim of this study was to determine the nature of age-related changes in behavioral and electroencephalographic correlates of interference control using a factorial combination of the Simon and flanker interference conditions. Data were collected from a group of younger and high-functioning older adults. Behavioral results indicated the presence of conflict interference effects in both groups, that both Simon and flanker conflict effects are increased in high-functioning older adults, that the two types of conflict interference interact superadditively, and that older adults are more susceptible to the superadditive costs of multiple conflict types. ERP analyses revealed that early perceptual and response-selection processes are differentially modulated by flanker and Simon conflict respectively, however, there was no evidence that these early processes were impaired in older adults. Later components of the ERP in the P3 time range mirrored behavioral results, reflecting the increased susceptibility to flanker and Simon conflict in older adults.
冲突处理和干扰控制一直是病理性大脑老化研究中的热门课题。然而，对于这些认知过程在健康大脑老化过程中是如何改变的，我们还有很多需要了解。此外，很少有研究使用析因设计结合多种干扰控制措施。本研究旨在使用 Simon 和侧翼干扰条件的析因组合，确定行为和脑电图干扰控制相关因素随年龄变化的性质。数据是从一组年轻和高功能的老年人中收集的。行为结果表明，两组都存在冲突干扰效应，高功能老年人的 Simon 和侧翼冲突效应都增加，两种类型的冲突干扰呈超相加作用，老年人更容易受到多种冲突类型的超相加成本的影响。ERP 分析表明，早期感知和反应选择过程分别受到侧翼和 Simon 冲突的不同调节，但没有证据表明老年人的这些早期过程受损。ERP 中的后期成分在 P3 时间范围内反映了行为结果，反映了老年人对侧翼和 Simon 冲突的敏感性增加。
