Poster D59, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
When Do Neurophysiological Correlates of Word Production Change Across the Adult Lifespan?
Giulia Krethlow1, Tanja Atanasova1, Raphaël Fargier2, Marina Laganaro1;1Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, 2Institute of Language, Communication and Brain - Aix-Marseille University, Laboratoire Parole et Langage
Language skills are among those most maintained during aging when compared to other cognitive functions. Nevertheless age dependent differences in word production performance can be observed in both accuracy and production latencies (1), especially in older populations (2,3). Neurophysiological activity underlying word production has also been shown to vary between young and older adults (4,5). For instance, Valente & Laganaro (2015), reported different brain activations between young and older adults in picture naming in the time period compatible with lexical-semantic processes and suggested that word production modifications in aging could be influenced by the age-related changes affecting the semantic system and its processing dynamic. As these studies compared groups of young adults (usually 20-30 years-old) to older adults it is unclear when such neurophysiological changes occur in the adult life-span. In this study we aimed to investigate the electrophysiological (EEG) event-related (ERP) patterns in a picture naming task, not only across the two extremities of the adult lifespan, but also by including intermediate age-groups. High-density EEG was recorded in 80 French native speakers aged 20 to 80 years-old divided into four age groups. Behavioral results show that only the older group (70-80 years-old) displays slower production latencies relative to the other groups. However, ERP microstates differ only in the group of young adult speakers (20-30 years-old) relative to the other age-groups. In the time window between 125 and 155 milliseconds after the image onset a specific microstate is present in all age-groups over 40 years but not in the group of young adults. Hence, distinct behavior is observed only in the older adults, but different neurophysiological patterns, in the time-window associated to lexical-semantic processes, is observed only in the youngest adults. This unexpected pattern may indicate either that changes in brain activity start in the forties but without behavioral decline until the age of 70 years-old, or, more likely, that the group of 20-30 years-old presents a particular pattern relative to the rest of adulthood, possibly due to still ongoing maturation (6). These results may also call into question the relevance of investigating mental processes using mostly groups of undergraduates (20-30 years-old) to study language processing. References: 1. Kavé, G., Knafo, A., & Gilboa, A. (2010). The rise and fall of word retrieval across the lifespan. Psychology and Aging, 25(3), 719. 2. Kavé, G., & Yafé, R. (2014). Performance of younger and older adults on tests of word knowledge and word retrieval: independence or interdependence of skills?. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23, 36–45. 3. Stine-Morrow E, Shake M (2009) Language in aged persons. Encycl Neurosci 5:337–342. 4. Valente, A., & Laganaro, M., 2015. Ageing effects on word production processes: an ERP topographic analysis. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 30:10, 1259-1272. 5. Mohan, R., & Weber, C. (2018): Neural activity reveals effects of aging on inhibitory processes during word retrieval, Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. 6. Lebel, C., Beaulieu, C. (2011). Longitudinal development of human brain wiring continues from childhood into adulthood. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, pp. 10937-10947.
Themes: Language Production, Development
Method: Electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/ECOG)