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Age-Related Differences in the Neural Processing of Idioms: A Positive Perspective
Su-Ling Yeh1,2,3,4, Shuo-Heng Li1, Li Jingling5
1Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
|June 13, 2022
Summary
Older adults utilize their extensive vocabulary and world knowledge to process idioms effectively. This study shows aging may enhance, not just decline, cognitive abilities like language processing.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Gerontology
Background:
- Idiom processing is a complex linguistic task.
- Cognitive abilities, including language processing, can be maintained or enhanced in older adults.
- Life-long experiences may lead to reorganized neural networks for language.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if older adults benefit from larger mental lexicon and world knowledge in idiom processing.
- To compare idiom processing in older versus younger adults using behavioral and neuroimaging methods.
- To explore the neural underpinnings of idiom comprehension in aging.
Main Methods:
- Participants judged sequences as idioms or not.
- Stimuli included frequent idioms, infrequent idioms, random sequences, and perceptual controls.
- Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Main Results:
- Older adults showed higher accuracy for frequent idioms and equivalent accuracy for infrequent idioms compared to younger adults.
- Older adults exhibited greater activation in semantic representation brain regions for idioms.
- Increased activation in articulation-related regions suggested a thinking-aloud strategy in older adults.
Conclusions:
- Older adults leverage accumulated knowledge for effective idiom processing.
- Neural activity suggests re-organized cognitive resources and strategies in aging language users.
- Aging may be associated with cognitive reorganization and maintenance rather than universal decline.
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