Predictive Processing Over the Course of Aging: Multiple Timescales of Effective Connectivity.
Martin Tom Banaschewski1, Christoph Mathys2, István Winkler3
1Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
The European Journal of Neuroscience
|January 7, 2026
Summary
The brain adapts to changing sounds by adjusting neural connections over seconds and minutes. Aging impacts this adaptation, affecting how the brain predicts and processes new auditory information.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Cognitive Aging
Background:
- Predictive processing theories explain perception via top-down predictions and bottom-up errors.
- Neural connectivity's adaptation to dynamic sensory environments and aging effects are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how temporal factors (seconds, minutes) and age influence neural responses and connectivity to changing auditory stimuli.
- Examine the dynamics of neural adaptation across different timescales and age groups.
Main Methods:
- Recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from 63 participants (18-75 years) listening to auditory sequences.
- Analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) and used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to infer effective connectivity.
Main Results:
- ERPs were larger for original deviants than reverse deviants.
- Neural response amplitudes varied with timescale and age, increasing over seconds but decreasing over minutes and with age.
- DCM showed increased top-down connectivity for deviants, with timescale-dependent changes in intrinsic connectivity.
- Aging altered modulation of connectivity by deviant type and slow dynamics.
Conclusions:
- The brain dynamically adapts to changing sensory environments across multiple timescales.
- Aging is associated with specific changes in the dynamics of neural adaptation and predictive processing.
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