Ageing and Cognitive Inhibition: An ERP analysis

Abstract

Impaired cognitive inhibition is one of a number of changes in cognitive functioning that are associated with healthy ageing. Cognitive inhibition is the ability to suppress or withhold some cognitive process and includes the ability to block out distracting information. Successful cognitive inhibition underlies improved performance on a range of executive functions including problem solving, long-term planning and goal-directed behaviour (Darowski, Helder, Zacks, Hasher, & Hambrick, 2008). One theory posits that age-related deficits in cognitive inhibition may underlie general cognitive decline associated with older adults (Hasher & Zacks, 1988; Hasher, Zacks, & Rahhal, 1999). Previous behavioural studies have found that automatic, or unintentional cognitive inhibition is preserved with age while controlled, intentional cognitive inhibition is impaired in older adults (Collette, Germain, Hogge, & Van der Linden, 2009). In contrast, a number of neuroimaging studies suggest that older adults show less differentiation than young adults in neural processing of automatic and controlled tasks. In particular, it has been suggested that automatic tasks are processed more like controlled tasks, suggesting increased cognitive effort required to complete them (Germain & Collette, 2008).