Behavioral and Neural Markers of Flexible Attention over Working Memory in Aging

Abstract

Working memory (WM) declines as we age and, because of its fundamental role in higher order cognition, this can have highly deleterious effects in daily life. We investigated whether older individuals benefit from flexible orienting of attention within WM to mitigate cognitive decline. We measured magnetoencephalography (MEG) in older adults performing a WM precision task with cues during the maintenance period that retroactively predicted the location of the relevant items for performance (retro-cues). WM performance of older adults significantly benefitted from retro-cues. Whereas WM maintenance declined with age, retro-cues conferred strong attentional benefits. A model-based analysis revealed an increase in the probability of recalling the target, a lowered probability of retrieving incorrect items or guessing, and an improvement in memory precision. MEG recordings showed that retro-cues induced a transient lateralization of alpha (8–14 Hz) and beta (15–30 Hz) oscillatory power. Interestingly, shorter durations of alpha/beta lateralization following retro-cues predicted larger cueing benefits, reinforcing recent ideas about the dynamic nature of access to WM representations. Our results suggest that older adults retain flexible control over WM, but individual differences in control correspond to differences in neural dynamics, possibly reflecting the degree of preservation of control in healthy aging.

Temporal Expectations Guide Dynamic Prioritization in Visual Working Memory through Attenuated α Oscillations

“…Indeed, in sensory areas relevant to the retained perceptual information, α oscillations have since been shown to be attenuated during working memory (e.g., Sauseng et al, 2009; Spitzer and Blankenburg, 2012). Based on the latter work, it has further been hypothesized that the degree of α attenuation during working memory retention may reflect the degree to which the mnemonic representations (which are retained by the underlying neuronal populations) are prioritized (Myers et al, 2014; Poch et al, 2014; Wallis et al, 2015; Mok et al, 2016). …”

“…More recently, attenuated α oscillations over task-relevant sensory areas have also been implicated in the retention of perceptual representations in working memory (Jokisch and Jensen, 2007; Sauseng et al, 2009; Spitzer and Blankenburg, 2012). Furthermore, several recent studies have suggested that spatially specific decreases in α oscillations are triggered by orienting attention to an item's spatial location in working memory (e.g., Myers et al, 2014; Poch et al, 2014; Wallis et al, 2015; Mok et al, 2016). …”

Probing the limits of alpha power lateralization as a neural marker of selective attention in middle-aged and older listeners

“…To date, all of the available evidence on changes in alpha lateralization with age comes from visual studies that contrasted young (~18-30 years) to older (~60-80 years) adults (Sander et al, 2012;Hong et al, 2015;Leenders et al, 2016; but see Mok et al, 2016) while virtually nothing is known about the period where one might suspect age-related change to first surface, that is, middle adulthood (~40-60 years) (Raz, 2005). In light of the well-attested fact that middle-aged adults already show signs of a gradual, if subtle, decline in cognitive abilities and sensory fidelity including hearing (Lin, 2011;Fabiani, 2012), and with new results emerging on the intricate interplay of hearing abilities and maintenance of cognitive fitness Wayne & Johnsrude, 2015;Deal et al, 2016), targeting this age group should be a prime goal for the neuroscience of attention.…”

Unraveling the relation between EEG-correlates of attentional orienting and sound localization performance: a diffusion model approach

“…In fact, there is first evidence that distinct attentional mechanisms contribute to the preparation for as opposed to the ongoing processing of a stimulus (van Ede, Szebényi, & Maris, 2014). In addition, we explore whether the proposed mechanistic function of alpha oscillations extends to samples of older participants, which remains an ongoing matter of debate (Hong, Sun, Bengson, Mangun, & Tong, 2015;Mok, Myers, Wallis, & Nobre, 2016;Tune et al, 2018;Vaden, Hutcheson, McCollum, Kentros, & Visscher, 2012).…”