Differences in the Efficiency of Cognitive Control across Young Adulthood: An ERP Perspective

Abstract

Young adulthood is a period of major life changes when everyday life becomes much more complex compared to adolescence. Such changes require highly efficient cognitive control. Developmental studies show that structural changes in the brain areas that support complex behavior continue into the early 20s. However, despite the fact that at the beginning of young adulthood, important behavioral and brain restructuring still occurs, most studies use broad age ranges for young adults (from 18 to 40 years of age) as a reference point for “adult” behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate age-related differences in the efficiency of cognitive control across young adulthood. In total, 107 individuals participated in this study and were divided into three age groups: 19–21, 23–26, and 28–44. We used a visual word categorization task to assess cognitive efficiency and event-related potentials (ERPs) to track events that take place from the stimulus onset until the actual behavioral response. We found age differences in both performance and amplitudes of the ERP components during the early stages of processing — P2 and N2. Our findings provide important evidence for the continuation of age-related changes in brain dynamics that underlie the efficiency of cognitive control even in the early 20s.

Temporal Course of Interference Control from Early to Late Young Adulthood: An ERP Study

“…We included 131 volunteers in this study and divided them into age groups based on the results from our previous studies [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]: Early 20s ( n = 44; 22 females; M = 19.8; SD = 0.78; age range 19–21 years), Mid 20s ( n = 44; 23 females; M = 24.5; SD = 1.02; age range 23–27 years) and Early 30s ( n = 43; 21 females; M = 33.3; SD = 4.24; age range 28–44 years). An additional three participants were excluded from the analysis because they had more than 20% of blink artifacts and artifacts due to involuntary muscle contractions.…”

“…We included 131 volunteers in this study and divided them into age groups based on the results from our previous studies [7][8][9][10] An additional three participants were excluded from the analysis because they had more than 20% of blink artifacts and artifacts due to involuntary muscle contractions.…”

“…To investigate if and how the experience of transitioning to adulthood and the protracted brain development foster cognitive development, in several of our previous studies we focused on early adult years [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ], dividing young adults into those in their early and mid 20s and those above 28, the age after which significant maturational changes are not expected anymore [ 6 ]. We first explored response inhibition as one of the key executive functions for voluntary control of behavior, using event-related potentials (ERPs) to accurately trace the temporal flow of response inhibition components in the brain [ 8 ].…”

“…We also investigated the efficiency of applying cognitive control using a cognitive task in which participants were asked to classify different words into categories (perceptual and semantic). During the task we recorded EEG responses [ 10 ]. Our study revealed differences in performance and ERP amplitudes: participants in their early 20s made more performance errors during the task, while enlarged P2 and N2 ERP amplitudes indicated that they had to apply more cognitive focus and attention to resolve the task, contrary to young adults in their early 30s.…”

“…Many of these disorders are characterized by impairments in interference control [ 31 ]. Based on our previous results [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ], we hypothesized that interference control would continue to develop throughout the early 20s, which will be shown by improvements in performance and differences in ERP components from the early 20s to the early 30s.…”