Aging and electrocortical response to error feedback during a spatial learning task
Karen J. Mathewson,
Jane Dywan,
Peter J. Snyder,
William J. Tays,
Sidney J. Segalowitz,
Karen J. Mathewson
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorJane Dywan
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorPeter J. Snyder
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Lifespan Hospitals System, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Search for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Tays
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorSidney J. Segalowitz
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorKaren J. Mathewson,
Jane Dywan,
Peter J. Snyder,
William J. Tays,
Sidney J. Segalowitz,
Karen J. Mathewson
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorJane Dywan
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorPeter J. Snyder
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Lifespan Hospitals System, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Search for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Tays
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorSidney J. Segalowitz
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorAddress reprint requests to: Jane Dywan, Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
This work was made possible by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Innovation Trust to J.D. and S.J.S. We thank James Desjardins for his invaluable technical assistance and Allison Flynn for her help with data processing. P.J.S. was on faculty in the Departments of Psychology and Neurology at the University of Connecticut during the completion of this research.
Abstract
Event-related potentials were collected as older and younger adults responded to error feedback in an adaptation of the Groton Maze Learning Test, an age-sensitive measure of spatial learning and executive skills expected to maximally involve anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Older adults made more errors and produced smaller feedback-related negativities (FRNs) than young controls. LORETA source localization revealed that, for young adults, neural activation associated with the FRN was focused in ACC and was stronger to negative feedback. Older adults responded with less intense and less differentiated ACC activation, but FRN amplitudes did relate to error rate for the most difficult mazes. The feedback P3 was sensitive to negative feedback but played no role in the prediction of error for either group. These data reflect the selective age-related decline of ACC response but also its continued contribution to performance monitoring in aging.
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