Aging and response conflict solution: behavioural and functional connectivity changes

Abstract

Healthy aging has been found associated with less efficient response conflict solution, but the cognitive and neural mechanisms remain elusive. In a two-experiment study, we first examined the behavioural consequences of this putative age-related decline for conflicts induced by spatial stimulus–response incompatibility. We then used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a large, independent sample of adults (n = 399; 18–85 years) to investigate age differences in functional connectivity between the nodes of a network previously found associated with incompatibility-induced response conflicts in the very same paradigm. As expected, overcoming interference from conflicting response tendencies took longer in older adults, even after accounting for potential mediator variables (general response speed and accuracy, motor speed, visuomotor coordination ability, and cognitive flexibility). Experiment 2 revealed selective age-related decreases in functional connectivity between bilateral anterior insula, pre-supplementary motor area, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Importantly, these age effects persisted after controlling for regional gray-matter atrophy assessed by voxel-based morphometry. Meta-analytic functional profiling using the BrainMap database showed these age-sensitive nodes to be more strongly linked to highly abstract cognition, as compared with the remaining network nodes, which in turn were more strongly linked to action-related processing. These findings indicate changes in interregional coupling with age among task-relevant network nodes that are not specifically associated with conflict resolution per se. Rather, our behavioural and neural data jointly suggest that healthy aging is associated with difficulties in properly activating non-dominant but relevant task schemata necessary to exert efficient cognitive control over action.

Common and distinct neural correlates of dual-tasking and task-switching: a meta-analytic review and a neuro-cognitive processing model of human multitasking

“…We conjecture that these selection demands in dual-tasking are met by enhanced bilateral fO recruitment. If these selection processes failed, we would predict backward crosstalk from Task 2 onto Task 1, as has been shown for elderly individuals (Hein and Schubert 2004), for whom the neurofunctional network integrity of the fO/aI region has been found to be compromised (Langner et al 2015).…”

Three key regions for supervisory attentional control: Evidence from neuroimaging meta-analyses

“…This interpretation also has implications for patients with frontal lobe lesions or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, where abnormal task performance has commonly been interpreted as a deficit in inhibitory action control (Aron et al, 2003; Broerse et al, 2001; Depue et al, 2010; Rubia et al, 2010). However, it seems that rather than being caused by a failure of directed global inhibition, response errors in these patients may be more strongly related to a failure to monitor and implement the relevant task set (see also Everling and Johnston, 2013; Langner et al, 2014; Munakata et al, 2011). …”

Hemispheric Lateralization of Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Insula: Association with Age, Gender, and a Novelty-Seeking Trait

“…The SFG is part of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a functional region implicated in age-related cognitive changes (Harlé Katia and Sanfey, 2012; Langner et al, 2015; MacPherson et al, 2002; Zhu et al, 2014). Compared to young adults, older adults show impaired performance in resolving stimulus–response conflict and decreased connectivity of bilateral AI to dorsomedial PFC and DLPFC (Langner et al, 2015). Older adults, compared to younger adults, showed higher activation in the right DLPFC and right AI within a task-switching paradigm (Zhu et al, 2014).…”