Abstract
Previous research has reported reduced efficiency in reactive inhibition, along with reduced brain activations, in older adults. The current study investigated age-related behavioral and neural changes in proactive inhibition, and whether age may influence the relationship between proactive and reactive inhibition. One-hundred-and-forty-nine adults (18 to 72 years) underwent fMRI while performing a stop signal task (SST). Proactive inhibition was defined by the sequential effect, the correlation between the estimated probability of stop signal – p(Stop) – and go trial reaction time (goRT). P(Stop) was estimated trial by trial with a Bayesian belief model; reactive inhibition was defined by the stop signal reaction time (SSRT). Behaviorally the magnitude of sequential effect was not correlated with age, replicating earlier reports of spared proactive control in older adults. Age was associated with greater activations to p(Stop) in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), paracentral lobule, superior parietal lobule, and cerebellum, and activations to goRT in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG). Granger Causality analysis demonstrated that the PFC Granger caused IOG, with the PFC-IOG connectivity significantly correlated with p(Stop) in older but not younger adults. These findings suggest that the PFC and IOG activations and PFC-IOG connectivity may compensate for proactive control during aging. In contrast, while the activations of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and caudate head to p(Stop) were negatively correlated with SSRT, relating proactive to reactive control, these activities did not vary with age. These findings highlighted distinct neural processes underlying proactive inhibition and limited neural plasticity to support cognitive control in the aging brain.
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This study is supported by National Institutes of Health grants DA023248, AA021449, MH113134, and CA218501 as well as a VA Merit Award CX001301. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the VA. We thank Dr. Jaime Ide for many helpful discussions.
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Author C-S.R. Li has received research grants from NIH (DA023248, AA021449, and MH113134) and he declares no conflict of interest. Author H.H. Chao has received research grants from the NIH (CA218501) and VA (VA Merit Award CX001301) and she declares no conflict of interest.
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Hu, S., Job, M., Jenks, S.K. et al. Imaging the effects of age on proactive control in healthy adults. Brain Imaging and Behavior 13, 1526–1537 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00103-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00103-w