Age-related occipito-temporal hypoactivation during visual search: Relationships between mN2pc sources and performance

▸ Aging effects on the N2pc neural sources were explored by magnetoencephalography. ▸ Age-related changes in N2pc are associated with hypoactivation of occipito-temporal sources. ▸ Hypoactivation is more marked in the right hemisphere. Recently, an event-related potential (ERP) study (Lorenzo-López...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2011-04, Vol.49 (5), p.858-865
Main Authors: Lorenzo-López, L., Gutiérrez, R., Moratti, S., Maestú, F., Cadaveira, F., Amenedo, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult. Elderly
Age Differences
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging (Individuals)
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Attention - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Hemisphere Functions
Brain Mapping
Developmental psychology
Diagnostic Tests
Electroencephalography - methods
Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Magnetoencephalography - methods
Male
MEG
Middle Aged
mN2pc
Neurological Organization
Occipital Lobe - physiology
Older Adults
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Regression Analysis
Spatial Ability
Temporal Lobe - physiology
TMT-A
Visual Perception
Visual Perception - physiology
Visual search
Visual Stimuli
Young Adult
Young Adults
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Summary:▸ Aging effects on the N2pc neural sources were explored by magnetoencephalography. ▸ Age-related changes in N2pc are associated with hypoactivation of occipito-temporal sources. ▸ Hypoactivation is more marked in the right hemisphere. Recently, an event-related potential (ERP) study (Lorenzo-López et al., 2008) provided evidence that normal aging significantly delays and attenuates the electrophysiological correlate of the allocation of visuospatial attention (N2pc component) during a feature-detection visual search task. To further explore the effects of normal aging on the N2pc neural sources, neuromagnetic activity during the execution of a visual search task was recorded in healthy young (N=14) and older (N=20) participants by using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The possible relationships between these neural sources and overt performance were explored by assessing the co-variation between the neural N2pc activity and both the task performance and the execution in the Trail Making Test Form A (TMT-A). Results revealed that young participants showed greater activity in occipito-temporal regions than older participants during the mN2pc (magnetic counterpart of the N2pc component) latency range (190–270ms). Moreover, older participants showed reduced relative activation in the right occipito-temporal source of mN2pc. These findings suggest that the previously observed age-related changes in N2pc parameters are associated with a significant hypoactivation of occipito-temporal N2pc sources that is more marked in the right hemisphere.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.01.015