Background

Prospective memory involves remembering to execute an intention at the appropriate moment (prospective component) as well as retrieving the intended action (retrospective component). Several electrophysiological studies showed that neural activity associated with the prospective and the retrospective component differed between older and younger adults. However, these studies mainly reported event-related potentials (ERP), without considering other oscillatory parameters of age-related neural modulations that might be associated with the two components.

Objective

In the present study, we analysed electrophysiological data to describe the age-related patterns of brain oscillations associated with the prospective and the retrospective components of prospective memory.

Methods

The prospective and the retrospective components were manipulated in two experiments. In experiment 1, the prospective component was manipulated by varying the cue distinctiveness (i.e., how easy it was to detect the cue based on colour). In experiment 2, the retrospective component was manipulated by varying the number of intentions to be remembered (i.e., one or two intentions). We used time-frequency analysis to characterise the EEG oscillatory activity in younger and older adults.

Results

The prospective component was associated with age differences in alpha and beta frequency bands. Compared to younger adults, older adults showed a decrease of parietal alpha activity when they detected distinct prospective memory cues, and a decrease of parietal beta when they detected less distinct cues. Moreover, older adults showed less beta activity compared to the younger adults across experimental manipulations. No age differences emerged with respect to the retrospective component.

Conclusions

The specific pattern of oscillatory activity associated with the prospective component in older adults could underlie the dynamic deployment of different attentional resources supporting cue detection. Moreover, beta activity in both experiments might support an attempt exerted by older adults to enhance task coordination processes. Overall, cluster-based permutation analyses provided a first description of the changes of the EEG time-frequency responses related to intention retrieval in older adults.

中文翻译：

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脑电时频响应与年龄相关的前瞻性记忆检索中的调制。

背景

预期记忆包括记住在适当的时候执行意图（预期的组成部分）以及检索预期的动作（追溯的组成部分）。几项电生理学研究表明，与老年人和年轻人相比，与前瞻性和回顾性成分相关的神经活动有所不同。但是，这些研究主要报道了事件相关电位（ERP），没有考虑可能与这两个成分相关的与年龄相关的神经调节的其他振荡参数。

客观的

在本研究中，我们分析了电生理数据，以描述与前瞻性记忆和前瞻性记忆的回顾性成分相关的与年龄相关的脑震荡模式。

方法

前瞻性部分和回顾性部分在两个实验中进行了处理。在实验1中，通过改变提示的独特性（即根据颜色检测提示的难易程度）来操纵预期成分。在实验2中，通过改变要记住的意图（即一个或两个意图）的数量来操纵回顾性组件。我们使用时频分析来表征年轻人和老年人的脑电图振荡活动。

结果

前瞻性因素与α和β频段的年龄差异有关。与年轻人相比，老年人在检测到明显的前瞻性记忆线索时，顶叶α活性降低，而在检测到较少的线索时，顶叶β活性降低。此外，在整个实验操作中，老年人比年轻人显示出更少的beta活性。回顾部分没有年龄差异。

结论

与老年人中的预期成分相关的特定振荡活动模式可能是支持提示检测的不同注意力资源的动态部署的基础。此外，两个实验中的beta活性都可能支持老年人为增强任务协调过程所做的尝试。总体而言，基于聚类的置换分析提供了与老年人意图检索相关的EEG时频响应变化的第一个描述。