Evidence Accumulation Rate Moderates the Relationship between Enriched Environment Exposure and Age-Related Response Speed Declines

Brosnan, Méadhbh, Pearce, Daniel J., O’Neill, Megan H., Loughnane, Gerard M., Fleming, Bryce, Zhou, Shou-Han, Chong, Trevor, Nobre, Anna C., Connell, Redmond G.O., and Bellgrove, Mark A. (2023) Evidence Accumulation Rate Moderates the Relationship between Enriched Environment Exposure and Age-Related Response Speed Declines. Journal of Neuroscience, 43 (37). pp. 6401-6414.

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Abstract

Older adults exposed to enriched environments (EEs) maintain relatively higher levels of cognitive function, even in the face of compromised markers of brain health. Response speed (RS) is often used as a simple proxy to measure the preservation of global cognitive function in older adults. However, it is unknown which specific selection, decision, and/or motor processes provide the most specific indices of neurocognitive health. Here, using a simple decision task with electroencephalography (EEG), we found that the efficiency with which an individual accumulates sensory evidence was a critical determinant of the extent to which RS was preserved in older adults (63% female, 37% male). Moreover, the mitigating influence of EE on age-related RS declines was most pronounced when evidence accumulation rates were shallowest. These results suggest that the phenomenon of cognitive reserve, whereby high EE individuals can better tolerate suboptimal brain health to facilitate the preservation of cognitive function, is not just applicable to neuroanatomical indicators of brain aging but can be observed in markers of neurophysiology. Our results suggest that EEG metrics of evidence accumulation may index neurocognitive vulnerability of the aging brain.

Item ID: 80852
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1529-2401
Keywords: aging, cognitive reserve, decision-making, enriched environments, neurocognitive resilience, response speed
Copyright Information: © 2023 Brosnan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
Date Deposited: 27 Feb 2024 02:49
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420301 Aged health care @ 30%
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3209 Neurosciences > 320905 Neurology and neuromuscular diseases @ 70%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280103 Expanding knowledge in the biomedical and clinical sciences @ 100%
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