title: Normal aging selectively diminishes alpha lateralization in visual spatial attention.
abstract: EEG studies of cue-induced visual alpha power (8-13 Hz) lateralization have been conducted on young adults without examining differences that may develop as a consequence of normal aging. Here, we examined age-related differences in spatial attention by comparing healthy older and younger adults. Our key finding is that cue-induced alpha power lateralization was observed in younger, but not older adults, even though both groups exhibited classic event-related potential signatures of spatial orienting. Specifically, both younger and older adults showed significant early directing-attention negativity (EDAN), anterior directing-attention negativity (ADAN), late directing-attention positivity (LDAP) and contingent negative variation (CNV). Furthermore, target-evoked sensory components were enhanced for attended relative to unattended targets in both younger and older groups. This pattern of results suggests that although older adults can successfully allocate spatial attention, they do so without the lateralization of alpha power that is commonly observed in younger adults. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that younger and older adults might engage different neural mechanisms for attentional orienting, and that alpha power lateralization during visual spatial attention is a phenomenon that diminishes during normal aging.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; Center for Mind and Brain, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
authors.forename: Xiangfei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Center for Mind and Brain, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
authors.forename: Jesse J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bengson
authors.affiliation: Center for Mind and Brain, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
authors.forename: George R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Mangun
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China. Electronic address: stong@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shanbao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Alpha power; Event-related potential; Spatial attention; Top-down control