Stability of word comprehension with age An electrophysiological study

• Published in: Mechanisms of ageing and development Vol. 128; no. 11-12; pp. 628 - 636
• Main Authors: GIAQUINTO, S, RANGHI, F, BUTLER, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Science 01.11.2007
• Subjects: Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aging - physiology; Aging - psychology; Auditory Perception; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Comprehension; Development. Metamorphosis. Moult. Ageing; Electroencephalography; Electrooculography; Evoked Potentials; Evoked Potentials, Auditory; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Language; Male; Middle Aged; Reaction Time; Semantics; Time Factors; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; Vertebrata; Senescence; Mammalia; Language; Ageing; Electrophysiology; Aging; Event evoked potential; Event related potentials; Age
• ISSN: 0047-6374
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mad.2007.09.003

Behavioural studies have suggested that lexical access is relatively unaffected by normal aging unlike other aspects of semantic processing. This psychophysiological study was designed to gather further evidence on the issue. Using an oddball procedure, an auditory N400 was recorded in both young (mean age 27.7 years) and elderly (mean age 65.1 years) volunteers in normal health. The target was either a high frequency word or a non-word, in two different sessions. The amplitude, onset latency and duration of the N400 did not differ in the two groups of subjects although the peak latency was delayed in the elderly group. The earlier N100-P200 complex had also a longer duration in the elderly group. The results indicate that aging processes affect the various stages of perceptual processing and language comprehension in different ways. Whereas P200, the main index of perceptual processing, was slowed, some measures of lexical access were found to be stable with age.