Despite the accumulated knowledge on moral decision-making in the early stages of development, empirical evidence is still limited in the old-aged adults. The current study contributes to unveil the neural correlates of judgments of moral transgressions as a function of aging, by examining the temporal dynamics of neural activation elicited by intentional and accidental harmful actions in three groups of healthy participants: young adults (18-35), adults (40-55), and older adults (60-75). Older adults were slower and less accurate in rating intentionality, compared to the younger groups. In ERP analysis, the older group showed increased P2 amplitude, which was predicted by poorer performance on neuropsychological tests. Reduced amplitudes were found on critical ERP components to moral cognition (N2 and LPP), namely while processing intentional harmful scenarios. Older adults seem to allocate more attentional resources (P2) to the task, probably to compensate the age-related decline in executive functioning, while younger groups show a pronounced negativity while detecting harm (N2) and increased neural activation to encode the intentions behind the acts (LPP).

中文翻译：

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衰老对意图（误）感知的影响-ERP研究。

尽管在发展的早期阶段积累了关于道德决策的知识，但经验证据仍然在老年人中有限。通过研究三组健康参与者的故意和意外伤害行为引起的神经激活的时间动态，当前的研究有助于揭示随年龄变化而发生的道德违背判断的神经相关性：年轻人（18-35岁），成人（40-55）和老年人（60-75）。与年轻组相比，老年人的意图意向评估速度较慢，准确性较差。在ERP分析中，年龄较大的组显示P2振幅增加，这是由神经心理学测试的较差表现所预测的。在道德认知的关键ERP组件（N2和LPP）上发现幅度减小，即在处理故意的有害场景时。老年人似乎为任务分配了更多的注意力资源（P2），可能是为了补偿与年龄相关的执行功能下降，而年轻的组在检测到伤害（N2）时表现出明显的消极情绪，并增强了神经激活以编码潜在的执行力。行为（LPP）。