Effects of Aging on Visual Attention Regulatory Network

Objective Aging is an increasingly serious social problem. The cognitive function of the elderly, such as attention, shows a significant decline. Investigating the deficits of visual attention regulatory network caused by aging will further our understanding of the neural mechanism of cognition declines of the elderly, and providing us the theoretical basis to find potential intervention methods. Methods In the study, we used a classical two-target attention task. Subjects were asked to keep their gaze on the central fixation cross, a pair of spots appeared separately located on left and right 13.5 degrees from the cross. After 800-1 200 ms fixation, one of the two spots randomly changed its form or both remained unchanged. We recorded neural activity of young adults and old adults during the attention task using electroencephalogram (EEG). Results Through comparing the differences of EEG activity under visual stimuli changed and unchanged conditions, we found that neural activity of channels in frontal, parietal and temporal areas of young adults significantly changed with the change of stimuli, while neural activity of old adults didn't follow the change of stimuli. Conclusion These results demonstrated that brain network of the elderly could not effectively react to the change of external visual information load in the attention task. Aging is accompanied by the functional decline of the visual attention regulatory network. Besides, decline of this brain network also showed sex difference. Our research provided new evidence for the decline of visual attention regulatory network of the elderly.