title: Interactive effects of age and gender on EEG power and coherence during a short-term memory task in middle-aged adults.
abstract: The effects of age and gender on electroencephalographic (EEG) activity during a short-term memory task were assessed in a group of 40 healthy participants aged 22-63 years. Multi-channel EEG was recorded in 20 younger (mean = 24.65-year-old, 10 male) and 20 middle-aged participants (mean = 46.40-year-old, 10 male) during performance of a Sternberg task. EEG power and coherence measures were analyzed in different frequency bands. Significant interactions emerged between age and gender in memory performance and concomitant EEG parameters, suggesting that the aging process differentially influences men and women. Middle-aged women showed a lower short-term memory performance compared to young women, which was accompanied by decreasing delta and theta power and increasing brain connectivity with age in women. In contrast, men showed no age-related decline in short-term memory performance and no changes in EEG parameters. These results provide first evidence of age-related alterations in EEG activity underlying memory processes, which were already evident in the middle years of life in women but not in men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria; BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria. Electronic address: silvia.kober@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Silvia Erika
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kober
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Johanna Louise
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Reichert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria; BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria; Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neuper
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria; BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Guilherme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D058256:Brain Waves; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Age; Brain connectivity; Gender; Slow-wave EEG oscillations; Sternberg