Ageing affects event-related potentials and brain oscillations: A behavioral and electrophysiological study using a haptic recognition memory task

摘要

In this electrophysiological study, we investigated the effects of ageing on recognition memory for three-dimensional (3D) familiar objects presented to touch in a continuous paradigm. To examine changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain oscillations, we recorded the EEGs of healthy groups of young (n=14; mean age =32.3 years) and older adults (n=14; mean age = 65.1). Both age groups exhibited similar accuracy and exploration times when making old-new judgments. Young and older participants showed a marginally significant ERP oldew effect widely distributed over the scalp between 550-750. ms. In addition, the elders showed lower amplitude than younger participants within 1200-1500. ms. There were age-related differences in brain oscillations as measured by event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP). Older adults showed greater alpha and beta power reductions than young participants, suggesting the recruitment of additional neural resources. In contrast, the two age groups showed a reliable oldew effect in the theta band that temporarily overlapped the ERP oldew effect. The present results suggest that despite similar behavioral performance, the young and older adults recruited different neural resources to perform a haptic recognition task.