Longitudinal Evidence for Attenuated Local-Global Deviance Detection as a Precursor of Working Memory Decline

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Aging Research

Background:

• Normal aging involves reduced sensory input weighting and increased reliance on predictions, attenuating prediction errors.
• Electrophysiology reveals age-related, hierarchy-selective shifts in prediction error processing, with higher-level deficits.
• Disrupted prediction error propagation is linked to working memory deficits, but the longitudinal relationship is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To longitudinally investigate the age-related decline in hierarchical predictive processing and its relationship with working memory.
• To determine if predictive processing continues to decline with age similarly to working memory.
• To examine the temporal relationship between predictive processing and working memory changes over three years.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study of 78 participants across three age groups (adolescents, adults, seniors) over three years.
• Utilized electroencephalography (EEG) and an auditory local-global paradigm to measure prediction error signals (MMN, P3a, RON, frontocentral negativity, P3b).
• Assessed working memory capacity and correlated electrophysiological measures with working memory performance.

Main Results:

• Seniors showed preserved local auditory processing but compromised global processing, indicating hierarchy-selective deficits in prediction error signaling.
• Electrophysiological responses related to prediction errors remained stable over time, contrasting with working memory decline.
• Prediction error signals correlated with concurrent working memory, and earlier predictive processing predicted later working memory, but not vice versa.

Conclusions:

• The hierarchy-selective attenuation of prediction errors in aging is likely a precursor to working memory decline.
• Unlike working memory, core electrophysiological markers of predictive processing show stability over time in seniors.
• Findings suggest a causal link where impaired predictive coding precedes and potentially drives working memory deterioration in aging.