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Age-related post-error slowing and stimulus repetition effect in motor inhibition during a stop-signal task

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate how older adults react to a failed-inhibition error while performing a stop-signal task. That is, whether elderly people would exhibit enlarged post-error slowing and whether such slowing revealed an adaptive process, maladaptive process, or a mixture of maladaptive followed by adaptive processes. This study also addresses if the post-error process might further interact with a stimulus repetition effect based on the memory retrieval explanation. A group of 34 younger adults (age range 20–30 years) and a group of 34 older adults (age range 60–80 years) were included for the analyses. The results of the current study supported a mixture model by showing that older adults exhibited a larger post-error slowing than younger adults, and their post-error slowing was initially accompanied by deceased accuracy that then increased on the subsequent trial. Furthermore, such post-error slowing on older adults only occurred in the trial condition where the stimulus was repeated from the previous trial suggesting a memory-based process (a form of negative priming) involved in post-error processes. The implication of the current finding is that older adults might maintain the ability to detect and monitor the response error, yet their post-error adjustment might require a much longer time to start functioning well after the initial detrimental orienting response to the error and the entire process was memory-based.

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Data availability

Data are available upon request if you follow ethical guidelines.

Abbreviations

SST:

Stop-signal task

SSD:

Stop-signal delay

SSRT:

Stop-signal reaction time

MoCA:

Montreal Cognitive Assessment

BDI-II:

Beck Depression Inventory-II

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Mind Research and Imaging Center (MRIC), supported by MOST, at NCKU for consultation and instrument availability. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, for financially supporting this research [Contract No. 104-2410-H-006-021-MY2, 106-2410-H-006-031-MY2, 108-2321-B-006-022-MY2, MOST 108-2410-H-006 -038-MY3, MOST 110-2321-B-006-004].

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, for financially supporting this research [Contract No. 104-2410-H-006-021-MY2, 106-2410-H-006-031-MY2, 108-2321-B-006-022-MY2, MOST 108-2410-H-006-038-MY3, MOST 110-2321-B-006-004].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Electrophysiology Laboratory, Control, Aging, Sleep, and Emotion (CASE), Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Howard Muchen Hsu & Shulan Hsieh

  2. Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Shulan Hsieh

  3. Department and Institute of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Shulan Hsieh

Authors
  1. Howard Muchen Hsu
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  2. Shulan Hsieh
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Contributions

HH designed the analysis protocol, analyzed the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript. SH applied for the research funding, designed the research protocol, supervised data analyses, and rewrote and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shulan Hsieh.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Procedures were carried out under ethical approval obtained from the National Cheng Kung University Research Ethics Committee (NO. 104-004).

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Participants provided written informed consent before beginning the experiment.

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Hsu, H.M., Hsieh, S. Age-related post-error slowing and stimulus repetition effect in motor inhibition during a stop-signal task. Psychological Research 86, 1108–1121 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01551-0

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