The ability to monitor internal bodily and cognitive processes is essential for everyday functioning and independence in older adults, because it allows for adjustments when lapses in performance are imminent. In the present study, age-related morphological changes to the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP), an electrophysiological cortical representation of cardiac signals, and its association with self-reported everyday cognition were examined. A community sample of older adults showed an increased HEP amplitude, which could reflect a stronger representation of early stages of cardiac interoception, and a more anterior scalp distribution of the HEP, suggesting a more widespread configuration of the underlying neural generators, compared to a group of young adults. Furthermore, in older adults, HEP amplitude was negatively correlated with self-estimated everyday cognitive functioning. Older adults with pronounced cortical representations of peripheral signals may thus be more likely to take note of lapses in their own bodily and cognitive function, leading to lower estimates of their cognitive abilities. These results provide novel insights into age-related changes in interoceptive processing and their association with metacognitive judgments, with potentially far-reaching implications for cognitive aging and age-related cognitive decline.

监测内部身体和认知过程的能力对于老年人的日常功能和独立性至关重要，因为它允许在即将出现表现失误时进行调整。在本研究中，检查了与年龄相关的心跳诱发电位 (HEP) 的形态变化，这是一种心脏信号的电生理皮质表现，以及它与自我报告的日常认知的关联。老年人的社区样本显示 HEP 振幅增加，这可能反映心脏内感受早期阶段的更强代表性，以及 HEP 更靠前的头皮分布，表明与一组相比，潜在神经发生器的配置更广泛的年轻人。此外，在老年人中，HEP 幅度与自我估计的日常认知功能呈负相关。因此，具有明显皮层外周信号表征的老年人可能更容易注意到自己身体和认知功能的失误，从而导致对其认知能力的估计较低。这些结果提供了对内感受处理中与年龄相关的变化及其与元认知判断的关联的新见解，对认知老化和与年龄相关的认知衰退具有潜在的深远影响。