RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Broadscale dampening of uncertainty adjustment in the aging brain
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.07.14.549093
DO 10.1101/2023.07.14.549093
A1 Kosciessa, Julian Q.
A1 Mayr, Ulrich
A1 Lindenberger, Ulman
A1 Garrett, Douglas D.
YR 2024
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/10/18/2023.07.14.549093.abstract
AB The ability to prioritize among input features according to relevance enables adaptive behaviors across the human lifespan. However, relevance often remains ambiguous, and such uncertainty increases demands for dynamic control. While both cognitive stability and flexibility decline during healthy ageing, it is unknown whether aging alters how uncertainty impacts perception and decision-making, and if so, via which neural mechanisms. Here, we assess uncertainty adjustment across the adult lifespan (N = 100; cross-sectional) via behavioral modelling and a theoretically informed set of EEG-, fMRI-, and pupil-based signatures. On the group level, older adults show a broad dampening of uncertainty adjustment relative to younger adults. At the individual level, older individuals with more young-like neural responses also showed better maintained cognitive control. Our results highlight neural mechanisms whose maintenance plausibly enables flexible task-set, perception, and decision computations across the adult lifespan.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.