Le but de cette thèse est d’investiguer l’organisation fonctionnelle du contrôle cognitif au sein du cortex préfrontal latéral dans la schizophrénie. Chez le sujet sain, Koechlin et coll. (Science, 2003) ont montré que le cortex préfrontal latéral était structuré en une cascade de processus de contrôle allant des régions antérieures aux régions postérieures, intégrant respectivement les informations épisodiques (événements antérieurs) et contextuelles (le contexte immédiat de l’action) au choix de l’action en réponse à un stimulus externe. En utilisant le paradigme expérimental de Koechlin et coll. en IRM fonctionnelle, nous avons investigué l’architecture fonctionnelle du contrôle cognitif au sein du cortex latéral préfrontal chez 15 patients schizophrènes et 14 sujets contrôles appariés. Dans une première étude, nous avons trouvé que les patients schizophrènes présentaient un déficit sélectif du contrôle contextuel associé à une hypoactivation des régions postérieures préfrontales, expliquant la désorganisation du discours et du comportement observés chez ces patients. Par ailleurs, les patients schizophrènes hyperactivaient leurs régions rostrales du cortex préfrontal latéral pendant le contrôle des informations de nature épisodique, ce que nous avons interprété comme une tentative de compensation infructueuse des dysfonctions du contrôle contextuel. Dans une seconde étude, nous avons montré que les patients schizophrènes présentaient également une perturbation du traitement top-down des informations de nature épisodique, liée à une dysconnectivité des régions rostrales vers les régions caudales du cortex préfrontal latéral. / The goal of this thesis is to investigate the functional organization of cognitive control within the LPFC in schizophrenia. We used a model postulating that cognitive control is functionally organized within the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) as a cascade of representations ranging from premotor to anterior LPFC regions according to stimuli, the present perceptual context, and the temporal episode in which stimuli occur. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the functional architecture of cognitive control within the LPFC in 15 schizophrenic patients and 14 matched healthy controls. In a first study, we found that immediate contextual signals insufficiently bias the caudal LPFC activity required to select the appropriate behavioral representation. This specific deficit could thus alter the internal consistency of schizophrenic patients’ behavior. To compensate for this weakening of contextual influence, schizophrenic patients may inefficiently use temporal episodic information through higher activation in rostral LPFC regions. In a second study, we showed that schizophrenic patients inappropriately process episodic information flow along a rostro-caudal axis within the LPFC. This top-down episodic control dysfunction could lead to a disruption of episodic memory that could account for the patients’ difficulties in organizing their behavior across time. All the results argue in favor of both dysfunctional specialization and integration within the LPFC in schizophrenia.

[pt] As funções executivas (FEs) são um conjunto de habilidades cognitivas envolvidas no controle consciente da ação e do pensamento. Seu desenvolvimento acompanha o processo prolongado de mielinização do córtex pré-frontal e, por isso, estaria exposto não só a fatores biológicos, mas também ambientais. Sendo a figura dos pais um importante fator no desenvolvimento infantil, a presente dissertação investigou as relações entre parentalidade e funções executivas de crianças em idade escolar. Para tanto, foi constituída de dois estudos. O primeiro baseia-se em uma revisão sistemática que a partir de uma seleção criteriosa elegeu 10 artigos que foram estudados no que tange a: aspectos gerais e metodológicos, parentalidade, FEs e resultados apresentados sobre influência da parentalidade nas FEs. Todos os artigos mostraram relações diretas ou indiretas entre parentalidade e o funcionamento executivo infantil. Já o segundo estudo teve como objetivo investigar as relações entre estilos parentais, práticas educativas maternas e funções executivas de crianças de 8 a 11 anos de idade. Ainda, considerou o papel da escolaridade da mãe e a renda familiar nessas relações. A amostra foi composta por 75 crianças que foram avaliadas no que tange à memória operacional, controle inibitório, fluência verbal e planejamento. Como resultados a prática educativa de disciplina relaxada foi associada ao desempenho no controle inibitório e o comportamento moral associou-se positivamente com a memória operacional. Já a escolaridade da mãe e a renda foram correlacionadas positivamente com controle inibitório, planejamento e fluência verbal. Em suma, nas duas pesquisas foram encontradas relações entre parentalidade e funções executivas, destacando a importância da consistência parental nessa dinâmica. / [en] The executive functions (EFs) are a range of cognitive skills involved in the conscious control of action and thought. The development of these functions follows the extended myelination process of the prefrontal cortex and, because of that, it is exposed, not only to biological factors but also to environmental ones. Being the parent figure an important agent in children s environment, this academic work intended to investigate the relationships between parental behavior and executive functions in school-age children. This work is formed by two studies: the first one is based on a systematic review that, from a detailed selection, elected 10 articles that were analyzed considering general and methodological aspects, parenting, EFs and results found on the influence that prental behaviours perform on EFs. All articles presented direct or indirect relationships between parental behavior and child executive functioning. The second study aimed to investigate the relationships between parenting style, maternal practices and executive functions in 8-11-year-old children. Furthermore, it investigated the role of the mother s education and the family income in these relationships. The sample consisted of 75 children that were assessed regarding working memory, inhibitory control, verbal fluency, and planning. As results, the parenting practice of a lenient discipline by the parents was associated with inhibitory control s performance, and moral behavior was positively associated with working memory. In turn, mother s education and income were po-sitively correlated with inhibitory control, planning, and verbal fluency. In conclusion, some relationships between parenting and executive functions were found, highlighting the importance of parental consistency in this dynamics.

No description available.

Background. In everyday life it is often required to integrate multisensory input to successfully conduct response inhibition (RI) and thus major executive control processes. Both RI and multisensory processes have been suggested to be altered in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is, however, unclear which neurophysiological processes relate to changes in RI in ASD and in how far these processes are affected by possible multisensory integration deficits in ASD. Method. Combining high-density EEG recordings with source localization analyses, we examined a group of adolescent ASD patients (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20) using a novel RI task. Results. Compared to controls, RI processes are generally compromised in adolescent ASD. This aggravation of RI processes is modulated by the content of multisensory information. The neurophysiological data suggest that deficits in ASD emerge in attentional selection and resource allocation processes related to occipito-parietal and middle frontal regions. Most importantly, conflict monitoring subprocesses during RI were specifically modulated by content of multisensory information in the superior frontal gyrus. Conclusions. RI processes are overstrained in adolescent ASD, especially when conflicting multisensory information has to be integrated to perform RI. It seems that the content of multisensory input is important to consider in ASD and its effects on cognitive control processes.

Ce travail de thèse présente une approche clinique et thérapeutique visant à fournir de nouvelles techniques de soins pour les patients atteints de troubles neurocognitifs et notamment de maladie d’Alzheimer. Les serious exergames sont des jeux vidéo sérieux intégrant une activité physique. Ils peuvent constituer des outils de production d’environnement enrichi pour les utilisateurs, en associant notamment exercice physique et entraînement cognitif. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’explorer en quoi les serious exergames peuvent contribuer à la prise en charge non médicamenteuse des troubles neurocognitifs. Dans ce travail, nous avons réalisé deux types de contribution. Les premières contributions sont générales, l’une présente notre approche clinique intégrative combinant exercice physique et entraînement cognitif via l’utilisation de serious exergames, et l’autre présente des recommandations concernant l’usage des serious games. Les secondes contributions sont de nature expérimentale. La première expérimentation vise à vérifier une des bases théoriques de notre approche clinique. Les deux expérimentations suivantes constituent une évaluation de la mise en œuvre de notre approche. / This thesis presents a clinical and therapeutic approach aiming to create new care for patients with neurocognitive disorder. Serious exergames are serious video games integrating physical activity. Serious exergames could be tools to product enriched environment associating physical exercise and cognitive training. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether serious exergames can contribute to the non-pharmacological management of neurocognitive disorders. In this thesis we have made two types of contributions. The first type are general contributions. One presents our integrative clinical approach associating physical exercise and cognitive training using serious exergames. The other one presents recommendations concerning the use of serious exergames. The second type of contributions are experimental. The first one aims to confirm a theoretical base of our clinical approach. The two other experiments assess the implementation of our approached in a population of patients with neurocognitive disorder.

Ziel: Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war einen Zusammenhang zwischen posttraumatischen Riechstörungen und Frontalhirnläsionen zu beweisen. Methode: Dafür wurden 51 Patienten mit posttraumatischen Riechstörungen und 50 Patienten mit Riechstörungen anderer Ätiologie untersucht. Der Grad der Riechstörungen wurde mit dem orthonasalen Testverfahren der Sniffin‘ Sticks sowie dem retronasalem Schmeckpulvertest eingestuft. Zusätzlich wurden neuropsychologische Tests (TMT-A, COWA, WCST, d2-R) durchgeführt, um Funktionen, die als typisch für die Frontallappen angesehen werden, zu überprüfen. Außerdem sollte jeder Patient den Fragebogen des Beck Depressions Inventars für eine Einschätzung seiner depressiven Tendenz beantworten. Ergebnisse: Es konnte in beiden untersuchten Patientengruppen kein Zusammenhang zwischen dem Riechvermögen und der neuropsychologischen Leistung festgestellt werden. Allerdings wurde in der posttraumatischen Patientengruppe eine signifikante, inverse Korrelation zwischen der Punktzahl des BDI und der Punktzahl im Diskriminationstest beobachtet. In der Kontrollgruppe bestand zwischen diesen Faktoren kein Zusammenhang. Schlussfolgerungen: Trotz der Ergebnisse dieser Studie kann ein Zusammenhang zwischen posttraumatischen Riechstörungen und Frontalhirnläsionen nicht ausgeschlossen werden, da u.a. die Funktionen der Frontallappen aufgrund ihrer Komplexität und Unspezifität schwierig zu messen sind. Außerdem waren die Traumata der Patienten sowie der klinische Verlauf sehr variabel und individuell. Frontalhirnläsionen können allerdings dramatische Einschnitte bedeuten, auf die klinisch besonders geachtet werden sollte. Olfaktorische Probleme können darüber hinaus zusätzlich die Lebensqualität stark beeinträchtigen und sollten daher ebenfalls Bestandteil der posttraumatischen Diagnostik sein.:Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 ABKÜRZUNGSVERZEICHNIS IV 2 EINLEITUNG 1 2.1 POSTTRAUMATISCHER RIECHVERLUST 1 2.2 FRONTALHIRN 3 3 ZIELSETZUNG DER STUDIE 9 3.1 HYPOTHESE 9 3.2 ERWARTETE ERGEBNISSE 10 4 MATERIAL UND METHODEN 10 4.1 PATIENTEN 10 4.2 METHODEN 10 4.2.1 RIECHTESTS 10 4.2.2 NEUROPSYCHOLOGISCHE TESTS 17 4.3 STATISTISCHE AUSWERTUNG 24 5 ERGEBNISSE 25 5.1 DESKRIPTIVE STATISTIK 25 5.1.1 PATIENTENKOLLEKTIV 25 5.1.2 POSTTRAUMATISCHE PATIENTEN 27 5.1.3 KONTROLLGRUPPE 28 5.2 KORRELATIONSPRÜFUNGEN 29 5.2.1 KORRELATION DER ERGEBNISSE DER RIECHTESTS MIT DEN ERGEBNISSEN DER NEUROPSYCHOLOGISCHEN TESTS 29 5.2.2 KORRELATION DER NEUROPSYCHOLOGISCHEN TESTS UNTEREINANDER 35 5.2.3 KORRELATION DER ERGEBNISSE DER RIECHTESTS MIT DER PUNKTZAHL DES BDI 36 6 DISKUSSION 39 6.1 METHODEN 40 6.1.1 RIECHTESTS 40 6.1.2 NEUROPSYCHOLOGISCHE TESTS 41 6.1.3 BECK DEPRESSIONS INVENTAR 43 6.2 ERGEBNISSE 43 6.2.1 ZUSAMMENHANG RIECHLEISTUNG MIT ERGEBNISSEN DER NEUROPSYCHOLOGISCHEN TESTS 43 6.2.2 ZUSAMMENHANG DISKRIMINATIONSLEISTUNG MIT PUNKTZAHL DES BECK DEPRESSIONS INVENTARS 48 7 AUSBLICK 50 8 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 52 9 SUMMARY 53 10 ABBILDUNGSVERZEICHNIS V 11 TABELLENVERZEICHNIS VII 12 LITERATURVERZEICHNIS VIII 13 ERKLÄRUNG ZUR ERÖFFNUNG DES PROMOTIONSVERFAHRENS XXI 14 EINHALTUNG DER AKTUELLEN GESETZLICHEN VORGABE XXII 15 DANKSAGUNG XXIII 16 CURRICULUM VITAE XXIV 17 PUBLIKATIONEN XXVI

Deficient executive functioning influences significantly the ability to manage every day life requirements. Nowdays different structured programmes for EF rehabilitation are available for aquired brain damage patiens. Their efficiency had been confirmed by meta- analysis, yet cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation programmes in clinical praktice still lack some kind of systematic intervention particularly aimed at EF. The topic of the theoretical part is an introduction of selected theoretical models of EF and a summary of existing knowledge about EF rehabilitation. I have created a rehabilitation programme specificly focused on the ability of planning and organizing acitivities, which are complex abilities closely linked to the primary components of EF. This programme was created to help patiens with aquired brain damage to work on improvment of such abilities, whose disruption makes managing every day life requirements difficult. Along with that we tried to improve the quality of their lifes. This programme is also being introduced wihin the theoretical part of this work. Further the process of research is being analyzed. The rehabilitation programme was used with 9 aquired brain damage patiens and it's efficiency was measured. Reasons why I used small-n design are analyzed in detail as well as the...

A pervasive real-world memory task is remembering to carry out intended activities at appropriate moments in the future, such as remembering to call one’s mother after returning from work or to hand a message to a colleague when seeing him in the office on the next morning. Such types of tasks are termed prospective memory (PM) tasks (Einstein & McDaniel, 1996). PM has been identified as one of the most frequent everyday memory challenges (e.g., Maylor, 1990), particularly in old age (McDaniel, Einstein, & Rendell, 2008) and an intact PM is considered to be crucial for the maintenance of independent living (Kliegel & Martin, 2003). Therefore, many researchers have focused on the exploration of possible age differences in PM. While age-related deficits were found in standard lab-based PM tasks, age-related benefits occured in naturalistic tasks that are carried out in participants’ everyday lives. This surprising pattern has been called the age-PM-paradox (Rendell & Craik, 2000). It has been supported by a meta-analysis comparing PM age effects found in studies that focused either on lab-based or on naturalistic PM tasks (Henry, MacLeod, Phillips, & Crawford, 2004). However, the mechanisms which are critical in determining the direction of age effects remain poorly delineated. Thus, the overall aim of the research programme presented in the present thesis was to investigate the age-PM-paradox as well as potential cognitive, motivational and emotional mechanisms and processes associated with age-related PM performance. For that purpose, three experimental studies were conducted testing adult age effects in different PM task settings with different task material. Furthermore, several possible underlying mechanisms suggested by the literature on age effects in PM were measured and/ or varied experimentally. The first aim of Study 1 was to cross-validate the age-PM-paradox within a single sample. The second aim was to empirically explore the relative importance of four recently proposed factors (motivation, metacognitive awareness, activity absorption, and control over the task) that may be associated with the direction of age effects inside and outside of the laboratory. For that purpose, 20 young and 20 older adults performed a lab-based and a naturalistic PM task, which were similar in structure and demand. The level of control was experimentally manipulated in both task settings. The remaining possibly influencing factors (motivation, metacognitive awareness, and activity absorption) were assessed via questionnaires in the laboratory and with a daily diary in the field. First, analysing mean level age differences, the paradox was confirmed. Second, exploring possible correlates of the paradox revealed that the level of daily activity absorption (i.e., everyday stress) was the most important mechanism in naturalistic PM performance. Further, high motivation and good metacognitive awareness were associated with age benefits in PM performance in the naturalistic task, while high ongoing activity absorption and low control over the PM cue were related to deficits in lab-based tasks. Thus, Study 1 confirmed the age-PM-paradox within one sample and with carefully matched lab-based and naturalistic tasks. In addition, the results indicate that the relative importance of the suggested factors may vary as a function of setting. While cognitive factors were most influential in the laboratory, motivational and knowledge-based factors were associated with high PM performance in the naturalistic task. The strong association between PM performance in the field and everyday stress highlights the need for future studies exploring the mechanisms underlying this effect. Results from Study 1 suggest that cognitive resources are most influential for PM age effects in the laboratory. Yet, it is not clear, which specific cognitive resources are needed for successful PM performance and if these processes differ between young and older adults. Thus, Study 2 explored the role of executive functions (i.e. shifting, updating and inhibition) as possible developmental mechanisms associated with PM age effects. 170 young and 110 older adults performed a battery of cognitive tests including measures of PM, shifting, updating, inhibition, working memory and speed. A comprehensive set of statistical approaches (e.g. median analyses, structural equation modelling) was used to analyze the possible cognitive correlates in predicting PM performance. First, age effects were confirmed in PM and also obtained in measures of executive control. Moreover, the facets of executive control differently predicted PM performance. Specifically, shifting was the strongest predictor of PM performance in young and older adults as well as for explaining age differences in PM. Thus, Study 2 clarified the role of different facets of controlled attention in age effects in PM and bears important conceptual implications: The results suggest that executive functions are important developmental mechanisms of PM across adulthood beyond working memory and speed. Specifically, shifting appeared to be an essential aspect of cognitive control involved in age-related PM performance. Moreover, examining PM as a latent construct confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity of PM. This demonstrates PM as a separate cognitive construct and suggests that PM is related to, but not identical with, executive control. Study 3 was set out to explore if the amount of cognitive resources needed to successfully perform a PM task in the laboratory can be influenced by the emotionality of the task material. First studies suggested that emotional task material may enhance PM performance in young and older adults by heightening the salience of the task and thereby reducing the need for controlled attention. However, the extent and mechanisms of this effect are still under debate. Therefore, Study 3 explored possible differential effects of PM target cue valence on PM age effects. For that purpose, 45 young and 41 older adults performed a PM task in which emotional valence of the PM cue was manipulated (positive, negative, neutral). Results revealed an interaction indicating that age differences were smaller in both emotional valence conditions compared to the neutral condition. This finding supports an emotionally enhanced memory effect in PM, but only for the older adults as PM performance in young adults was not affected by cue valence. From a conceptual perspective, the results from Study 3 may also contribute to the explanation of the age-PM-paradox, as they suggest that the neutral material usually applied in lab-based studies might overestimate PM age effects. In summary, the present thesis makes an important contribution to the ongoing conceptual debate concerning adult age effects in PM performance assessed in the laboratory versus participants’ everyday lives. Results strongly suggest that mostly different variables may be crucial for understanding PM age deficits in the laboratory and age benefits in naturalistic PM tasks. Successful PM performance in the laboratory seems to require high levels of cognitive resources. The present results suggest that shifting ability is especially relevant in this respect. On a task level the emotionality of the material seems to influence the required amount of cognitive resources as it reduced PM age effects. Everyday stress seems to be particularly important for successful PM performance in the field. Thus, possible future studies should specify the relation between stress and PM as outlined in the general discussion.

Les athlètes issus des sports de contact sont initiés à différents impacts à un jeune âge. Alors que les commotions cérébrales semblent représenter un fléau pouvant affecter les fonctions cognitives à long terme, le rôle des impacts sous-commotions dans la possible neurodégénérescence du cerveau est négligé. Ces impacts sous-commotions sont répertoriés à une vélocité moindre et ne déclencheraient pas la cascade métabolique associée aux signes et symptômes d’une commotion cérébrale. Les impacts sous-commotions sont caractéristiques des sports comme le hockey, le football américain ou le soccer et ils se produisent à une plus grande fréquence que les commotions cérébrales. Ainsi, le cerveau absorbe ces impacts à profusion au cours d’une saison, voire d’une carrière. Au hockey, l’initiation à ces impacts se produit à l’adolescence avec la mise en échec. Les fonctions exécutives, responsables des tâches de planification, d’inhibition et de mémoire de travail, finissent de se développer vers la fin de l’adolescence. De plus, ces fonctions semblent être altérées à long terme à la suite d’une commotion cérébrale. À cet égard, l’objectif du projet était d’explorer les effets des impacts sous-commotions sur les fonctions exécutives ainsi que sur l’état psychoaffectif chez des hockeyeurs adolescents pratiquant différents types de mise en échec. Trente-huit participants âgés de 12 et 17 ans ont été recrutés. Ces participants ont été séparés selon le type de mise en échec pratiqué durant la saison, soit le contact physique (CP), la mise en échec progressive (MEP) ou la mise en échec complète (MEC). Leurs fonctions exécutives ont été évaluées à l’aide d’un paradigme forme-couleur de la tâche d’alternance. L’état psychoaffectif a été évalué à partir de questionnaires autoadministrés. Puis, le protocole s’est déroulé au début et à la fin de la saison de hockey. Une ANCOVA 3 × 2 × 2 n’a révélé aucune interaction, ni d’effet, entre le type de mise en échec pratiqué (CP; MEP; MEC), le fait d’avoir un historique de commotions cérébrales (HCC; sans HCC) et le temps durant la saison (Pré; Post) sur les résultats à la tâche d’alternance et les scores aux questionnaires psychoaffectifs. Ces résultats suggèrent que le type de mise en échec pratiqué, au cours d’une saison, ne serait pas suffisant pour affecter les fonctions exécutives et l’aspect psychoaffectif des adolescents. / Athletes from contact sports are introduced to repetitive subconcussive impacts at a young age. Although concussions represent a major concern in public health as they can alter cognitive functions, little is known about subconcussive impacts and the role they might have in the hypothetical neurodegenerescence of the brain. Subconcussive impacts are registered at a smaller velocity than concussive impacts and therefore are not associated with concussion-related sign or symptoms. However, these impacts occur at a higher frequency as they are part of contact sports like hockey, American football and soccer. The brain receives multiple subconcussive impacts during a season or an entire career. Adolescent hockey players are introduced to body checking at the age of 13-14 years old and brain functions like executive functions are not completely developed until the end of adolescence. Also, executive functions are responsible for task planning, inhibition and working memory. Moreover, these functions seem to be afflicted in the long term after one or multiple concussions. The purpose of this project was to explore the effects of subconcussive impacts on executive functions and the psycho-affective state of adolescent hockey players competing with different types of body checking rules. Thirty-eight participants were recruited from the age of 12 to 17 years. They were grouped according to the type of body checking rules they played with during the season, which were physical contact (PC), restrictive body checking (RBC) and full body checking (FBC). Executive functions were assessed using a colour-shape paradigm of the switch task. Psycho-affective state was assessed with self-reported questionnaires. Participants completed this protocol at the beginning and the end of their hockey season. A 3 × 2 × 2 ANCOVA did not reveal any interaction, nor main effect of the type of body checking (PC; RBC; FBC), history of concussion (HOC; no HOC) and time of the season (Pre; Post) on the results of the switch task and the self-reported questionnaires. Therefore, this suggests that the rule of body checking is not sufficient to cause any alteration of executive functions or any change in the psycho-affective state of adolescent hockey players.

Le vieillissement normal peut être accompagné par un déclin cognitif incluant une diminution du contrôle attentionnel, une fonction exécutive nous permettant de concentrer notre attention tout en inhibant les distractions. De plus, des études antérieures ont démontré que la musique de fond peut améliorer certaines fonctions exécutives, autant chez les jeunes que chez les personnes âgées. Sachant que le vieillissement normal est caractérisé par un déclin du contrôle attentionnel qui n’est pas observé chez leurs cadets, cette étude vise à explorer si l’effet de la musique de fond sur le contrôle attentionnel est le même chez les personnes âgées et les jeunes adultes. Pour ce faire, 19 personnes âgées (62 à 74 ans) ainsi que 21 jeunes adultes (20 à 32 ans) ont effectué la tâche flanker d’Eriksen, qui évalue le contrôle attentionnel, dans trois conditions : en écoutant de la musique de fond stimulante, relaxante et en silence. Comme attendu, les temps de réaction étaient plus lents pour les essais non congruents que pour les essais congruents. Cette différence, appelée l’effet flanker, était significativement plus grande sous la condition de musique relaxante comparativement aux deux autres conditions. De plus, l’effet flanker était le même dans les deux groupes d’âge. Pour conclure, la musique relaxante nuit au contrôle attentionnel des personnes âgées et des jeunes adultes, comparativement à la musique stimulante et au silence. / Normal aging can be accompanied by a cognitive decline including a decrease in attentional control, an executive function allowing us to focus attention while inhibiting distractors. Also, previous studies demonstrated that background music can enhance some executive functions, both in young and older adults. Knowing that normal aging is characterised by a decline in attentional control that is not observed in their younger peers, this study aims to explore if the effect of background music on attentional control is the same in older and young adults. To do so, 19 older adults (62-74) as well as 21 young adults (20-32) performed the Eriksen’s flanker task, evaluating attentional control, under the exposition of three conditions: stimulating and relaxing music and silence. As expected, reaction time (RT) was slower for the incongruent trials and faster for the congruent ones. However, this difference, called the flanker effect, was significantly greater under the relaxing music condition compared to others, due to a combination of much slower RT in incongruent trials and faster RT in congruent ones. The flanker effect was the same in both age groups. In conclusion, relaxing music impairs attentional control of older and young adults compared to stimulating music and silence.