Age-related changes in cognitive conflict processing: an event-related potential study.
Cognitive tasks involving conflicting stimuli and responses are associated with an early age-related decline in performance. Conflict and conflict-induced interference can be stimulus- or response-related. In classical stimulus-response compatibility tasks, such as the Stroop task, the event-related potential (ERP) usually reveals a greater negativity on incongruent versus congruent trials which has often been linked with conflict processing. However, it is unclear whether this negativity is related to stimulus- or response-related conflict, thus rendering the meaning of age-related changes inconclusive. In the present study, a modified Stroop task was used to focus on stimulus-related interference processes while excluding response-related interference. Since we intended to study work-relevant effects ERPs and performance were determined in young (about 30 years old) and middle-aged (about 50 years old) healthy subjects (total n=80). In the ERP, a broad negativity developed after incongruent versus congruent stimuli between 350 and 650 ms. An age-related increase of the latency and amplitude of this negativity was observed. These results indicate age-related alterations in the processing of conflicting stimuli already in middle age.
Mager
Ralph
R
Center of Applied Technologies in Neuroscience-Basel, Psychiatric University Clinic of Basel, Wilhelm Klein-Strasse 27, 4025 Basel, Switzerland. ram@coat-basel.com
Bullinger
Alex H
AH
Brand
Serge
S
Schmidlin
Maria
M
Schärli
Heinz
H
Müller-Spahn
Franz
F
Störmer
Robert
R
Falkenstein
Michael
M
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis