title: Information processing becomes slower and predominantly serial in aging: Characterization of response-related brain potentials in an auditory-visual distraction-attention task.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of aging and attentional capture provoked by novel auditory stimuli on behavior (reaction time [RT], hits) and on response-related brain potentials (preRFP, CRN, postRFP, parietalRP) to target visual stimuli. Twenty-two young, 27 middle-aged, and 24 old adults performed an auditory-visual distraction-attention task. The RTs and latencies of preRFP, postRFP and parietalRT were longer in old and middle-aged than in young participants, reflecting the well-established age-related slowing of processing and performance. The inter-peak latencies (P3b-preRFP, preRFP-parietalRP, parietalRP-postRFP) were also longer in old and middle-aged than in young participants, further indicating an age-related tendency to increased predominance of serial (rather than parallel) processing of information, and that preRFP, CRN, postRFP, and parietalRP represent different cognitive processes from those indexed by the stimulus-related P3b. Finally, a distraction effect in performance (all three groups) and in postRFP latency (only middle-aged group) was also observed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Departamento de Psicoloxía Clínica e Psicobioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain. Electronic address: susana.cid.fdez@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cid-Fernández
authors.affiliation: Laboratory: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Departamento de Psicoloxía Clínica e Psicobioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain. Electronic address: monica.lindin@usc.es.
authors.forename: Mónica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindín
authors.affiliation: Laboratory: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Departamento de Psicoloxía Clínica e Psicobioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain. Electronic address: fernando.diaz@usc.es.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Díaz
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Auditory–visual stimulation; Distraction; ERP; Healthy aging; Response-related brain activity