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Age-related Changes to Attention and Working Memory: An Electrophysiological Study

The aim of this thesis was to help elucidate the mechanisms that underlie age-related decline in visual selective attention and working memory (WM). Older and younger adults completed a behavioural WM task, after which electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded as participants perform a localized attentional interference (LAI) task – competition/attentional interference was manipulated by systematically altering the distance between targets and distractors. Older adults showed impaired accuracy and reaction time on the WM and LAI tasks. Two event-related-potentials, indexing spatial attention (N2pc) and target processing (Ptc), displayed attenuated amplitude and increased latency in older adults. Thus, spatial selection, target enhancement and processing speed deficits may contribute to age-related attentional impairments. Furthermore, an unexpected component was found between the N2pc and Ptc in the older adult waveforms. Preliminary analyses suggest this may be the PD, implicated in distractor suppression, which may be differentially contributing to older and younger adults’ electrophysiology and attentional processing.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25517
Date30 December 2010
CreatorsWilson, Kristin
ContributorsFerber, Susanne
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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