@article{ref1,
title="Age-related changes in midfrontal theta activity during steering control: a driving simulator study",
journal="Neurobiology of aging",
year="2022",
author="Depestele, Siel and van Dun, Kim and Verstraelen, Stefanie and Ross, Veerle and Van Hoornweder, Sybren and Brijs, Kris and Brijs, Tom and Getzmann, Stephan and Meesen, Raf",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Motor control, a ubiquitous part of driving, requires increased cognitive controlled processing in older adults relative to younger adults. However, the influence of aging on motor-related neural mechanisms in the context of driving has rarely been studied. The present study aimed to identify age-related changes in cognitive control and attention allocation during a simulated steering task, using electroencephalography. Midfrontal theta, a marker for cognitive control, and posterior alpha power, a marker for attention allocation, were measured in a total of 26 young, 25 middle-aged, and 28 older adults. By adapting driving speed, the difficulty level of this steering task was individualized for each participant. <br><br>RESULTS show age-related changes in midfrontal theta power, but not in posterior alpha power, despite similar steering accuracy across age groups. Specifically, only younger and, to a lesser extent, middle-aged adults exhibited increased theta power while driving through more demanding curved segments relative to straight segments. In contrast, theta power upregulation was absent in older adults, suggesting a saturation of cognitive resources while driving, possibly due to a limitation in resource capacity, or less automatic motor-related neural processing.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0197-4580",
doi="10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.11.014",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.11.014"
}