Proactive and Reactive Response Inhibition across the Lifespan

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Human Aging

Background:

• Executive control encompasses proactive preparation and reactive response inhibition.
• These functions are crucial for goal-directed behavior and are known to be affected by aging.
• Frontostriatal pathways underpin inhibitory control but show differential aging rates in men and women.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related changes in proactive and reactive inhibitory self-control.
• To compare these changes across the lifespan and between sexes.
• To explore potential differences in neural substrates supporting these control mechanisms.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a smartphone-based platform to administer a response inhibition task to a large community sample (n=12,496).
• Measured proactive control by assessing changes in stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) with advance information.
• Measured reactive control using SSRT in the absence of advance information.

Main Results:

• Reactive inhibitory control declined with age, showing a steeper decline in men than women.
• Proactive control, or the benefit of preparation, did not change across the lifespan.
• Women demonstrated superior proactive control compared to men at all ages.

Conclusions:

• Reactive and proactive inhibitory control exhibit distinct age-related trajectories.
• Neural substrates supporting proactive and reactive control may differ in their sensitivity to age-related changes.
• Sex differences in aging impact reactive control more than proactive control.