Changes in Stimuli Inhibition and Response Inhibition during Aging, Comparative Study of Performance on Go/No-Go and Visual Search Tasks : A Basis for Future Parkinson's Disease Research

Details

Supervisors

Edwards, Martin ; Mustile, Magda

Faculty

Faculté de psychologie, logopédie, sexologie et des sciences de la famille

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences psychologiques, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enThis study focuses on the impact of normal aging two types of inhibition that are essential to our proper functioning. Indeed, stimuli inhibition allows us to ignore distractors and irrelevant information while response inhibition is the ability to modify or suppress automatic responses. With age, it is common to observe a decline in these executive functions. However, a decline in inhibition is also observed in pathological aging, particularly in Parkinson's disease. It is therefore essential to be able to differentiate the decline in inhibition associated with normal cognitive aging and the one associated with pathological aging. To this end, the performance of two age groups (young adults; 18-30 years and older adults; 50-90 years) is compared using two experimental tasks: a Visual Search task measuring stimuli inhibition and manipulating the salience of the target and the number of distractors, as well as a Go/No-Go task measuring response inhibition. Both are performed on a touch screen using a response button. The results show a significant effect of age on response inhibition with longer reaction times in older adults. For stimuli inhibition, the results are more complex. Even when the target is salient, the more distractors there is, the longer the reaction time, especially in older adults compared to young adults. These results qualify Treisman’s theory of parallel processing and highlights the importance of taking attentional and perceptual processes into account when comparing young and older adults. These results therefore partially reinforce recent observations in the literature while providing some nuances. They also contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive processes associated with aging and their interactions with attentional systems. Finally, they provide a solid basis for future research aimed at comparing inhibition deficits in normal aging and in pathological aging, such as Parkinson’s disease.