Experienced stress produces inhibitory deficits in old adults’ Flanker task performance: First evidence for lifetime stress effects beyond memory

Abstract

Highlights AbstractStudies regarding aged individuals' performance on the Flanker task differ with respect to reporting impaired or intact executive control. Past work has explained this discrepancy by hypothesising that elderly individuals use increased top-down control mechanisms advantageous to Flanker performance. This study investigated this mechanism, focussing on cumulative experienced stress as a factor that may impact on its execution, thereby leading to impaired performance. Thirty elderly and thirty young participants completed a version of the Flanker task paired with electroencephalographic recordings of the alpha frequency, whose increased synchronisation indexes inhibitory processes. Among high stress elderly individuals, findings revealed a general slowing of reaction times for congruent and incongruent stimuli, which correlated with alpha desynchronisation for both stimulus categories.Results found high performing (low stress) elderly revealed neither a behavioural nor electrophysiological difference compared to young participants. Therefore, rather than impacting on top-down compensatory mechanisms, findings indicate that stress may affect elderly participants' inhibitory control in attentional and sensorimotor domains.

The association between high levels of cumulative life stress and aberrant resting state EEG dynamics in old age

“…These findings highlight the damaging effect of cumulative lifetime stress, which emerges in later life and accelerates senescence in old adults. Our own work extended these behavioral findings by demonstrating that they coincide with task dependent alterations in the theta, alpha and upper gamma frequencies (Marshall et al, 2015;Marshall et al, 2016aMarshall et al, , 2016b.…”

“…For example, we recently demonstrated that among old adults, stress-related reductions of memory performance coincided with reduced upper gamma activity (Marshall et al, 2015) while executive impairments correlated with reduced synchronisation of the alpha rhythm (Marshall et al, 2016a). Our findings thus highlight that cumulative stress impacts on cortical neurocognitive processes necessary for intact cognitive performance.…”

Effect of Aging on Motor Inhibition during Action Preparation under Sensory Conflict

“…Several hypotheses have been proposed emphasizing the possible relationship between these deficits and a progressive degeneration of the prefrontal cortex (Hedden and Gabrieli, 2004; Gazzaley et al, 2008). In addition and especially relevant to the current issue, previous studies have reported that the aging population displays a reduced ability to make appropriate decisions and to choose between conflicting alternatives (Vallesi and Stuss, 2010; Korsch et al, 2014; Marshall et al, 2016), a function that requires a tight interaction between cognition and action and thus also relies on prefrontal functioning (Hedden and Gabrieli, 2004, 2005). Interestingly, it has been proposed that the aging brain progressively loses its capacity to suppress irrelevant information (Eriksen and Eriksen, 1974; Radvansky et al, 2005; Lucci et al, 2013; Korsch et al, 2016), resulting in an overflow of inappropriate neural activity which in turn, interferes with the processing of pertinent information (Gazzaley et al, 2008; Zhu et al, 2010).…”

Migration and cognitive function: a conceptual framework for Global Health Research

“…In addition to experiencing reduced social networks and social support, migrants are often under great stress during the migration process [ 62 , 63 ]. Studies have shown that stressful life events may affect elderly participants' inhibitory control in attentional and sensorimotor domains and therefore influence their cognitive function [ 64 ]. However, a longer stay in a hosting place has been shown to be associated with less stress and an improved social network [ 65 ].…”