Attentional Effects of Hand Proximity Occur Later in Older Adults: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

Research with young adults has shown hand proximity biases attention both early (by the time stimuli are categorized as relevant for action) and later, selectively for goal-relevant-stimuli. We examined age-related changes in this multisensory integration of vision and proprioception by comparing be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology and aging 2017-12, Vol.32 (8), p.710-721
Main Authors: Reed, Catherine L., Clay, Summer N., Kramer, Abigail O., Leland, David S., Hartley, Alan A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age Differences
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - physiology
Aging - psychology
Attention
Attention - physiology
Behavior
Bias
Cognition
Effects
Electroencephalography
Event-related potentials
Evoked Potentials
Female
Hand (Anatomy)
Hand - physiology
Hands
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Older people
Proprioception
Proximity
Reaction time
Reaction Time - physiology
Time course
Visual processing
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:Research with young adults has shown hand proximity biases attention both early (by the time stimuli are categorized as relevant for action) and later, selectively for goal-relevant-stimuli. We examined age-related changes in this multisensory integration of vision and proprioception by comparing behavior and event-related potentials (ERPs) between younger and older adults. In a visual detection task, the hand was placed near or kept far from target and nontarget stimuli matched for frequency and visual features. Although a behavioral hand proximity effect-faster response times for stimuli appearing near the hand-was found for both age groups, a proportionately larger effect was found for younger adults. ERPs revealed age-related differences in the time course of the hand's effect on visual processing. Younger adults showed selective increases in contralateral N1 and parietal P3 amplitudes for targets near the hand, but older adults only showed hand effects at the P3 which were accompanied by concurrent neural activity in bilateral frontal regions. This neural pattern suggests that compared with younger adults, older adults may produce the behavioral hand proximity effect by integrating hand position and visual inputs relying more on later, task-related, frontal attentional mechanisms and less on early, posterior, multisensory integration.
ISSN:0882-7974
1939-1498
DOI:10.1037/pag0000207