Aging is associated with reduced conscious error detection but the brain regions mediating these changes have yet to be clarified. The present study examined the neural correlates of error awareness in healthy older adults. Sixteen older participants (mean age = 75.5 years) and sixteen younger controls (mean age = 27.9 years) were administered the error awareness task, a go/no-go response inhibition paradigm, in which participants were required to signal commission errors. Compared with young adults, older adults were significantly poorer at consciously detecting performance errors, despite both groups being matched for overall accuracy. This age-related behavioral effect was associated with differences in error-related dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula activation, with younger adults showing significant differences between errors made with versus without awareness compared with older adults. By contrast, an age-specific modulation in right inferior parietal lobule activation emerged, with increased right inferior parietal lobule activity occurring in older adults during errors made with awareness compared with younger adults. These findings are consistent with theories of age-related deterioration in error processing mechanisms.

中文翻译：

---

健康老年人的错误意识受损：年龄组比较研究

衰老与意识错误检测减少有关，但调节这些变化的大脑区域尚未阐明。本研究检查了健康老年人错误意识的神经相关性。16 名年长的参与者（平均年龄 = 75.5 岁）和 16 名年轻的对照者（平均年龄 = 27.9 岁）接受了错误意识任务，这是一种去/不去反应抑制范式，参与者被要求发出委托错误信号。与年轻人相比，老年人在有意识地发现表现错误方面明显较差，尽管两组的总体准确性相匹配。这种与年龄相关的行为影响与错误相关的背侧前扣带回皮层和脑岛激活的差异有关，与老年人相比，年轻人在有意识和没有意识的情况下犯的错误之间存在显着差异。相比之下，右下顶叶小叶激活的年龄特异性调节出现了，与年轻人相比，老年人在意识错误期间发生的右下顶叶小叶活动增加。这些发现与错误处理机制中与年龄相关的恶化的理论是一致的。