Altered theta distribution and coherence during set-shifting in older age
Margarita Darna1, Anni Richter2, Jens-Max Hopf3
1Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Magdeburg, Germany.
Neurobiology of Aging
|April 14, 2026
Summary
Older adults maintain cognitive flexibility but use different brain strategies. Their brain activity is more distributed during task-switching compared to younger adults.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Cognitive flexibility, a key executive function for adapting to environmental changes, is crucial for daily living.
- The preservation of cognitive flexibility in healthy aging and its underlying neural mechanisms remain subjects of ongoing research and debate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive flexibility in older adults compared to young adults.
- To explore age-related differences in brain activity and network efficiency during cognitive flexibility tasks.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure cognitive flexibility in 99 young and 83 older adults.
- Analysis focused on theta-power, theta coherence, and global efficiency during set-shifting tasks.
Main Results:
- Older adults exhibited a speed-accuracy tradeoff, with longer reaction times but fewer errors than young adults.
- Both age groups showed increased theta-power during set-shifting, with distinct fronto-central (young) versus fronto-lateral (older) topographies.
- Set-shifting engagement increased theta coherence and global efficiency in both groups, though coherence patterns differed significantly by age (localized in young, distributed in older).
Conclusions:
- Successful set-shifting in older adults is associated with higher theta coherence and global efficiency.
- Age-related differences in cortical processing for cognitive flexibility involve the recruitment of more distributed neural resources in older adults.
