[Electroencephalographic rhythms during psychometric tests at 50 and 70 years of age]

The experiments were conducted to investigate changes occurring between maturity and old age in variations of the EEG when performing a series of mental tasks. Forty three normal male volunteers, divided in two age groups separated by 2 decades (52.9 +/- 0.2 yr, N = 22; 72.2 +/- 0.2 yr, N = 21), were continuously recorded by telemetry in 3 conditions: control, tests, questionnaires. Beta, alpha and theta rhythms and the number of slow waves were measured after visual EEG interpretation. The study showed that: (1) theta rhythms and slow waves were in higher proportions in men in their 70s; (2) variations induced by the various mental tasks were very similar at ages 50 and 70; (3) the two groups differed mostly in theta rhythm responses during tests with a coding task; (4) test performances and EEG indices were correlated only in the older group for theta rhythms.