title: Behavioral and Neural Markers of Flexible Attention over Working Memory in Aging.
abstract: Working memory (WM) declines as we age and, because of its fundamental role in higher order cognition, this can have highly deleterious effects in daily life. We investigated whether older individuals benefit from flexible orienting of attention within WM to mitigate cognitive decline. We measured magnetoencephalography (MEG) in older adults performing a WM precision task with cues during the maintenance period that retroactively predicted the location of the relevant items for performance (retro-cues). WM performance of older adults significantly benefitted from retro-cues. Whereas WM maintenance declined with age, retro-cues conferred strong attentional benefits. A model-based analysis revealed an increase in the probability of recalling the target, a lowered probability of retrieving incorrect items or guessing, and an improvement in memory precision. MEG recordings showed that retro-cues induced a transient lateralization of alpha (8-14 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) oscillatory power. Interestingly, shorter durations of alpha/beta lateralization following retro-cues predicted larger cueing benefits, reinforcing recent ideas about the dynamic nature of access to WM representations. Our results suggest that older adults retain flexible control over WM, but individual differences in control correspond to differences in neural dynamics, possibly reflecting the degree of preservation of control in healthy aging.
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
authors: Robert M
authors: RM
authors: Mok
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
authors: Nicholas E
authors: NE
authors: Myers
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Wallis
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
authors: Anna Christina
authors: AC
authors: Nobre
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001611:Beta Rhythm; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: alpha; healthy aging; magnetoencephalography; oscillations; working memory