Response-level processing during visual feature search: Effects of frontoparietal activation and adult age.
Abstract
Previous research suggests that feature search performance is relatively resistant
to age-related decline. However, little is known regarding the neural mechanisms underlying
the age-related constancy of feature search. In this experiment, we used a diffusion
decision model of reaction time (RT), and event-related functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) to investigate age-related differences in response-level processing
during visual feature search. Participants were 80 healthy, right-handed, community-dwelling
individuals, 19-79 years of age. Analyses of search performance indicated that targets
accompanied by response-incompatible distractors were associated with a significant
increase in the nondecision-time (t0) model parameter, possibly reflecting the additional
time required for response execution. Nondecision time increased significantly with
increasing age, but no age-related effects were evident in drift rate, cautiousness
(boundary separation, a), or in the specific effects of response compatibility. Nondecision
time was also associated with a pattern of activation and deactivation in frontoparietal
regions. The relation of age to nondecision time was indirect, mediated by this pattern
of frontoparietal activation and deactivation. Response-compatible and -incompatible
trials were associated with specific patterns of activation in the medial and superior
parietal cortex, and frontal eye field, but these activation effects did not mediate
the relation between age and search performance. These findings suggest that, in the
context of a highly efficient feature search task, the age-related influence of frontoparietal
activation is operative at a relatively general level, which is common to the task
conditions, rather than at the response level specifically.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Frontal LobeParietal Lobe
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Visual Perception
Decision Making
Attention
Reaction Time
Age Factors
Adult
Aged
Middle Aged
Female
Male
Young Adult
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22526Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.3758/s13414-019-01823-3Publication Info
Madden, David J; Siciliano, Rachel E; Tallman, Catherine W; Monge, Zachary A; Voss,
Andreas; & Cohen, Jessica R (2020). Response-level processing during visual feature search: Effects of frontoparietal
activation and adult age. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 82(1). pp. 330-349. 10.3758/s13414-019-01823-3. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22526.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David Joseph Madden
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
My research focuses primarily on the cognitive neuroscience of aging: the investigation
of age-related changes in perception, attention, and memory, using both behavioral
measures and neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET),
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
The behavioral measures have focused on reaction time, with the goal of distinguishing
age-related changes in specific cognitive abilities from mo

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