Age-related changes in midfrontal theta activity during steering control: A driving simulator study.
Neurobiol Aging
; 123: 145-153, 2023 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36572595
ABSTRACT
Motor control, a ubiquitous part of driving, requires increased cognitive controlled processing in older adults relative to younger adults. However, the influence of aging on motor-related neural mechanisms in the context of driving has rarely been studied. The present study aimed to identify age-related changes in cognitive control and attention allocation during a simulated steering task, using electroencephalography. Midfrontal theta, a marker for cognitive control, and posterior alpha power, a marker for attention allocation, were measured in a total of 26 young, 25 middle-aged, and 28 older adults. By adapting driving speed, the difficulty level of this steering task was individualized for each participant. Results show age-related changes in midfrontal theta power, but not in posterior alpha power, despite similar steering accuracy across age groups. Specifically, only younger and, to a lesser extent, middle-aged adults exhibited increased theta power while driving through more demanding curved segments relative to straight segments. In contrast, theta power upregulation was absent in older adults, suggesting a saturation of cognitive resources while driving, possibly due to a limitation in resource capacity, or less automatic motor-related neural processing.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Aging
/
Electroencephalography
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Neurobiol Aging
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article