Event-related desynchronization (ERD) patterns during memory processes: effects of aging and task difficulty

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) was studied in 10 young (mean age = 19.1) and 10 older (mean age = 62.8) subjects during two recognition tasks: verbal and visuo-spatial. The difficulty of these tasks varied according to the difficulty to distinguish between targets and distractors. EEGs recorded from 29 electrodes were used to compute ERDs from 14 source derivations in 125 msec intervals. Thereafter, they were displayed as spatio-temporal maps. The results show that desynchronization was more widespread in the visuo-spatial compared to the verbal task. This was observed in the two age groups, although it was more pronounced in the young subjects. The effect of task complexity was also influenced by the kind of material to be remembered: more differences between the two levels of difficulty were observed during the verbal task. The results revealed significant influences of the task and time variables on the ERD patterns. A distinct time course of the desynchronization phenomenon was observed to be related to the kind of recognition task. Age and task complexity interacted with the other variables.