scholarly journals Confirmation of age-related alterations in inhibitory control using a modified minimally delayed oculomotor response (MDOR) task

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11610
Author(s):  
Paul C. Knox ◽  
Dongmei Liang
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Target Display ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Temporal Predictability ◽  
Oculomotor Response

Considerable effort has been made to measure and understand the effects of ageing on inhibitory control using a range of behavioural tasks. In the minimally delayed oculomotor response (MDOR) task, participants are presented with a simple visual target step with variable target display duration (TDD), and instructed to saccade to the target not when it appears (a prosaccade response), but when it disappears (i.e., on target offset). Using this task, we recently found higher error rates and longer latencies for correct responses in older compared to younger participants. Here we have used a modified MDOR task, in which participants were presented with static placeholders identifying potential target positions (increasing spatial information), and three TDDs rather than two (reducing temporal predictability). We found that the yield of analysable trials was generally higher with this modified task and in 28 older (mean ± SD age: 65 ± 7 y) and 25 younger (26 ± 7 y) participants the total overall error rate was again higher in the older group (30 ± 18% vs. 16 ± 11%). An analysis of the temporal distribution of responses demonstrated a pronounced peak in error production around 150 ms (young) or 200 ms (old) after target onset. When we recalculated the error rate focusing on these errors, it was again significantly higher in the older group. The latency of correct responses (to offsets) was significantly increased in the older group, although much of this increase was accounted for by expected age-related visuomotor slowing. However, both latency and distribution data suggested that while older participants could generate increased levels of inhibition, they could not maintain these levels as efficiently as the younger participants. In 24 participants (15 old, 9 young) who completed both versions of the MDOR task, neither latency nor error rates differed significantly between versions. These results confirm an inhibitory control deficit in healthy older participants, and suggest that the dynamics of inhibitory control are also affected by ageing. The modified MDOR task yields more data while not altering basic performance parameters.

scholarly journals Age-related alterations in inhibitory control investigated using the minimally delayed oculomotor response task

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8401
Author(s):  
Paul C. Knox ◽  
Nikitha Pasunuru
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Oculomotor System ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Target Display ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Oculomotor Response ◽  
General Slowing ◽  
Response Task

Healthy, older adults are widely reported to experience cognitive decline, including impairments in inhibitory control. However, this general proposition has recently come under scrutiny because ageing effects are highly variable between individuals, are task dependent, and are sometimes not distinguished from general age-related slowing. We recently developed the minimally delayed oculomotor response (MDOR) task in which participants are presented with a simple visual target step, and instructed to saccade not to the target when it appears (a prosaccade response), but when it disappears (i.e. on target offset). Varying the target display duration (TDD) prevents offset timing being predictable from the time of target onset, and saccades prior to the offset are counted as errors. A comparison of MDOR task performance in a group of 22 older adults (mean age 62 years, range 50–72 years) with that in a group of 39 younger adults (22 years, range 19–27 years) demonstrated that MDOR latency was significantly increased in the older group by 34–68 ms depending on TDD. However, when MDOR latencies were corrected by subtracting the latency observed in a standard prosaccade task, the latency difference between groups was abolished. There was a larger latency modulation with TDD in the older group which was observed even when their generally longer latencies were taken into account. Error rates were significantly increased in the older group. An analysis of the timing distribution of errors demonstrated that most errors were failures to inhibit responses to target onsets. When error distributions were used to isolate clear inhibition failures from other types of error, the older group still exhibited significantly higher error rates as well as a higher residual error rate. Although MDOR latency in older participants may largely reflect a general slowing in the oculomotor system with age, both the latency modulation and error rate results are consistent with an age-related inhibitory control deficit. How this relates to performance on other inhibitory control tasks remains to be investigated.

scholarly journals Inhibitory control deficits in vascular cognitive impairment revealed using the MILO task.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Richards ◽  
Ian Michael Thornton ◽  
Anthony Bayer ◽  
Andrea Tales
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Vascular Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Localization Task ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Inhibitory Deficit ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Serial Reaction

We used the MILO (Multi-Item Localization) task to characterise the performance of a group of older adults diagnosed with mild to moderate vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). The MILO task is designed to explore the temporal context of visual search and in addition to measuring overall completion time, provides a profile of serial reaction time (SRT) patterns across all items in a sequence. Of particular interest here, is the Vanish/Remain MILO manipulation that can identify problems with inhibitory control during search. Typically, the slope of the SRT functions are identical, regardless of whether items Vanish or Remain visible when selected, indicating an ability to ignore previously selected targets. Based on the distributed nature of VCI-related pathology and previous visual search studies from our group, we speculated that MILO performance would be compromised in this group of participants when items remained visible after being selected relative. Compared to cognitively healthy, age-matched control participants, the performance of VCI participants was characterised by overall slowing, increased error rates, and crucially, a compromised ability to use inhibitory tagging. As predicted, VCI participants had a significantly shallower Remain versus Vanish SRT function, whereas slopes were identical for control groups. Overall, our findings suggest that the MILO task could be a useful tool for identifying non-age-related changes in behaviour with patient populations, and clearly hints at a specific inhibitory deficit in VCI.

scholarly journals Cognitive Flexibility and Inhibition in Individuals with Age-Related Hearing Loss

Geriatrics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Shraddha A. Shende ◽  
Lydia T. Nguyen ◽  
Elizabeth A. Lydon ◽  
Fatima T. Husain ◽  
Raksha A. Mudar
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Hearing Ability ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Trail Making ◽  
Age Related Hearing Loss

Growing evidence suggests alterations in cognitive control processes in individuals with varying degrees of age-related hearing loss (ARHL); however, alterations in those with unaided mild ARHL are understudied. The current study examined two cognitive control processes, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition, in 21 older adults with unaided mild ARHL and 18 age- and education-matched normal hearing (NH) controls. All participants underwent comprehensive audiological and cognitive evaluations including Trail Making Test-B, Verbal Fluency, Stroop, and two Go/NoGo tasks. Group differences in cognitive flexibility and inhibition as well as associations between peripheral and central hearing ability and measures of cognitive flexibility and inhibition were investigated. Findings revealed that the ARHL group took significantly longer to complete the Stroop task and had higher error rates on NoGo trials on both Go/NoGo tasks relative to the NH controls. Additionally, poorer peripheral and central hearing were associated with poorer cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Our findings suggest slower and more inefficient inhibitory control in the mild ARHL group relative to the NH group and add to decades of research on the association between hearing and cognition.

Perceptual Characteristics of Consonant Production in Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1411-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Bislick ◽  
William D. Hula
Keyword(s):  
Error Rate ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Diagnostic Process ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Contextual Variables ◽  
Error Type ◽  
Type Distribution ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Syllable Position

Purpose This retrospective analysis examined group differences in error rate across 4 contextual variables (clusters vs. singletons, syllable position, number of syllables, and articulatory phonetic features) in adults with apraxia of speech (AOS) and adults with aphasia only. Group differences in the distribution of error type across contextual variables were also examined. Method Ten individuals with acquired AOS and aphasia and 11 individuals with aphasia participated in this study. In the context of a 2-group experimental design, the influence of 4 contextual variables on error rate and error type distribution was examined via repetition of 29 multisyllabic words. Error rates were analyzed using Bayesian methods, whereas distribution of error type was examined via descriptive statistics. Results There were 4 findings of robust differences between the 2 groups. These differences were found for syllable position, number of syllables, manner of articulation, and voicing. Group differences were less robust for clusters versus singletons and place of articulation. Results of error type distribution show a high proportion of distortion and substitution errors in speakers with AOS and a high proportion of substitution and omission errors in speakers with aphasia. Conclusion Findings add to the continued effort to improve the understanding and assessment of AOS and aphasia. Several contextual variables more consistently influenced breakdown in participants with AOS compared to participants with aphasia and should be considered during the diagnostic process. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9701690

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