Effects of age on cognitive control during semantic categorization

Abstract

We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to study age effects of perceptual (basic-level) vs. perceptual-semantic (superordinate-level) categorization on cognitive control using the go/nogo paradigm. Twenty-two younger (11 M; 21±2.2 years) and 22 older adults (9 M; 63±5.8 years) completed two visual go/nogo tasks. In the single car task (SiC) (basic), go/nogo responses were made based on single exemplars of a car (go) and a dog (nogo). In the object animal task (ObA) (superordinate), responses were based on multiple exemplars of objects (go) and animals (nogo). Each task consisted of 200 trials: 160 (80%) ‘go’ trials that required a response through button pressing and 40 (20%) ‘nogo’ trials that required inhibition/withholding of a response. ERP data revealed significantly reduced nogo-N2 and nogo-P3 amplitudes in older compared to younger adults, whereas go-N2 and go-P3 amplitudes were comparable in both groups during both categorization tasks. Although the effects of categorization levels on behavioral data and P3 measures were similar in both groups with longer response times, lower accuracy scores, longer P3 latencies, and lower P3 amplitudes in ObA compared to SiC, N2 latency revealed age group differences moderated by the task. Older adults had longer N2 latency for ObA compared to SiC, in contrast, younger adults showed no N2 latency difference between SiC and ObA. Overall, these findings suggest that age differentially affects neural processing related to cognitive control during semantic categorization. Furthermore, in older adults, unlike in younger adults, levels of categorization modulate neural processing related to cognitive control even at the early stages (N2).

Integrated Cognitive Assessment: Speed and Accuracy of Visual Processing as a Reliable Proxy to Cognitive Performance

“…Thus, as opposed to solely focusing on working memory, the test engages the retina, the visual cortex and the motor cortex, all of them are shown to be affected pre-dementia or in early stages of the disease [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] . The ICA's focus on speed and accuracy of processing visual information [29][30][31][32] is in line with latest evidence suggesting that simultaneous object perception deficits are related to reduced visual processing speed in amnestic mild cognitive impairment 33 . Additionally, the proposed test is self-administered and is intrinsically independent of language and culture, thus making it ideal for large-scale pro-active cognitive screening and cognitive monitoring.…”

“…Particularly, in early stages of the disease, brain areas associated with the visuo-motor pathway are affected, beginning with the retina [22][23][24]27 , the visual cortex 21,26,27 and the motor cortex 25,28 , so together these represent more effective areas to look for the impact of early stage neurodegeneration as opposed to solely focusing on memory. The ICA focuses on cognitive functions such as speed and accuracy of processing visual information which have been shown to engage a large volume of cortex, while being a predictor of people's cognitive performance [30][31][32] ; thus, monitoring the performance and functionality of these areas altogether can be a reliable early indicator of the disease onset.…”

The Effects of Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment on Go/NoGo Semantic Categorization Task Performance and Event-Related Potentials

“…Basic and superordinate categorizations are more frequently involved in day-to-day functioning than subordinate categorization, which involves more in-depth/expert knowledge (e.g., knowledge used by dog experts, car experts, bird experts). Previously, we examined the effects of age on cognitive control using Go/NoGo tasks involving basic and superordinate categorization in an EEG study by comparing cognitively normal young and older adults [47]. We found that cognitively normal older adults had reduced NoGo-N2 and NoGo-P3 amplitudes compared to younger adults, suggesting alterations in neural processing during response inhibition.…”

“…Many EEG-based studies of normally aging individuals have used the Go/NoGo paradigm to study response inhibition [45][46][47][48][49][50]. The standard Go/NoGo task requires subjects to respond to a certain type of stimuli (Go) and inhibit/refrain from responding to another type of stimuli (NoGo), pre-defined by a specific set of rules.…”

Theta and Alpha Alterations in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment in Semantic Go/NoGo Tasks

“…These Go/NoGo studies typically show changes in the N2 and P3 ERP components in normal cognitive aging (e.g., Pfefferbaum et al, 1985; Eimer, 1993; Falkenstein et al, 1999; Mudar et al, 2015; Barry et al, 2016; Kropotov et al, 2016). Only a couple of studies have examined whether aMCI affects ERPs corresponding to Go/NoGo tasks relative to normal cognitive aging (Cid-Fernandez et al, 2014; Mudar et al, 2016).…”