Human cortical rhythms during visual delayed choice reaction time tasks. A high-resolution EEG study on normal aging.

Neuroimaging cognitive study of aging requires simple tasks ensuring a high rate of correct performances even in stressful neurophysiological settings. Here two simple delayed choice reaction time tasks were used to unveil event-related desynchronization (ERD) of theta (4-6 Hz) and alpha (6-12 Hz) electroencephalographic rhythms across normal aging. In the first condition, a cue stimulus (one bit) was memorized along a brief delay period (3.5-5.5 s). The explicit demand was visuo-spatial, but the retention could be also based on phonological and somatomotor coding. In the second condition, the cue stimulus remained available along the delay period. Correct performances were higher than 95% in both groups and tasks, although they were significantly better in young than elderly subjects (P < 0.03). During the delay period, theta and alpha ERD accompanying correct responses were recognized in the two groups, the alpha ERD being stronger and prolonged during the memory than non-memory task. On the other hand, the fronto-parietal theta and parietal alpha ERD were stronger in young than elderly subjects during both tasks. Notably, the frontal alpha ERD was negligible in elderly subjects. In conclusion, the present simple tasks unveiled in elderly compared to young subjects (i) a weaker involvement of (para)hippocampal-cortical circuits as revealed by theta ERD and (ii) a weaker involvement of "executive" thalamo-cortical circuits as revealed by frontal alpha ERD. These effects might worsen behavioral performances to the simple cognitive tasks with age. The present protocol is promising for the neuroimaging study of pathological aging.

Synchronization of gamma oscillations increases functional connectivity of human hippocampus and inferior-middle temporal cortex during repetitive visuomotor events.

Do recency processes associated with repetitive sensorimotor events modulate the magnitude and functional coupling of brain rhythmicity in human temporal cortex? Intracranial stereo electroencephalographic activity (SEEG; 256 Hz sampling rate) was recorded from hippocampus, and inferior (BA20) and middle (BA21) temporal cortex in four epilepsy patients. The repetitive events were represented by predicted imperative somatosensory stimuli (CNV paradigm) triggering hand movements ("repetitive visuomotor") or counting ("repetitive counting"). The non-repetitive events were "rare" (P3 paradigm) somatosensory stimuli triggering hand movements ("non-repetitive visuomotor") or counting ("non-repetitive counting"). Brain rhythmicity was indexed by event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) of SEEG data, whereas the functional coupling was evaluated by spectral SEEG coherence between pairs of the mentioned areas. The frequency bands of interest were theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (14-30 Hz), and gamma (32-46 Hz). Compared to the non-repetitive events, the "repetitive visuomotor" events showed a significant beta and gamma ERS in the hippocampus and a significant theta ERD in the inferior temporal cortex. Furthermore, the "repetitive visuomotor" events induced a task-specific significant gamma coherence among the examined areas. These results suggest that recency processes do modulate the magnitude and functional coupling of brain rhythmicity (especially gamma) in the human temporal cortex.