Age-related modulation of EEG time-frequency responses in prospective memory retrieval
Laera,Gianvito Arcara,Giorgio Gajewski,Patrick D. Kliegel,Matthias Hering,Alexandra
Laera,Gianvito
Arcara,Giorgio
Gajewski,Patrick D.
Kliegel,Matthias
Hering,Alexandra
Abstract
Background: Prospective memory involves remembering to execute an intention at the appropriate moment (prospective component) as well as retrieving the intended action (retrospective component). Several electrophysiological studies showed that neural activity associated with the prospective and the retrospective component differed between older and younger adults. However, these studies mainly reported event-related potentials (ERP), without considering other oscillatory parameters of age-related neural modulations that might be associated with the two components. Objective: In the present study, we analysed electrophysiological data to describe the age-related patterns of brain oscillations associated with the prospective and the retrospective components of prospective memory. Methods: The prospective and the retrospective components were manipulated in two experiments. In experiment 1, the prospective component was manipulated by varying the cue distinctiveness (i.e., how easy it was to detect the cue based on colour). In experiment 2, the retrospective component was manipulated by varying the number of intentions to be remembered (i.e., one or two intentions). We used time-frequency analysis to characterise the EEG oscillatory activity in younger and older adults. Results: The prospective component was associated with age differences in alpha and beta frequency bands. Compared to younger adults, older adults showed a decrease of parietal alpha activity when they detected distinct prospective memory cues, and a decrease of parietal beta when they detected less distinct cues. Moreover, older adults showed less beta activity compared to the younger adults across experimental manipulations. No age differences emerged with respect to the retrospective component. Conclusions: The specific pattern of oscillatory activity associated with the prospective component in older adults could underlie the dynamic deployment of different attentional resources supporting cue detection. Moreover, beta activity in both experiments might support an attempt exerted by older adults to enhance task coordination processes. Overall, cluster-based permutation analyses provided a first description of the changes of the EEG time-frequency responses related to intention retrieval in older adults.
Description
Funding Information: We thank Giovanni Pellegrino for sharing the code for the cluster-based correlation analyses. We thank Michael Falkenstein, Nele Wild-Wall and Katharina Zinke for their contributions to the two experiments. Data collection was supported by a grant (KL2303/6-1) from the German Science Foundation ( DFG ) awarded to Matthias Kliegel. Matthias Kliegel also acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation ( SNSF ) for the preparation of the current manuscript.
Date
2021
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Keywords
ALPHA OSCILLATIONS, ATTENTION, Ageing, Attentional control, BETA-BAND ACTIVITY, Brain oscillations, EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS, Episodic memory, Human EEG, INTENTIONS, PERFORMANCE, Prospective memory, RETROSPECTIVE COMPONENTS, TASK, THETA OSCILLATIONS, WORKING-MEMORY
Citation
Laera, G, Arcara, G, Gajewski, P D, Kliegel, M & Hering, A 2021, 'Age-related modulation of EEG time-frequency responses in prospective memory retrieval', Neuropsychologia, vol. 155, 107818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107818
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess