Aperiodic EEG activity is a domain-specific marker of attentional aging in neurotypical adults

Cazares, Christian; Rigby, Alison; Kang, Leena; Getzmann, Stephan; Arnau, Stefan; Wascher, Edmund; Voytek, Bradley · 2026 · Crossref

DOI: 10.64898/2026.07.22.739645

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Summary

This study investigates whether longitudinal changes in aperiodic electroencephalography (EEG) activity serve as a domain-specific biomarker for cognitive aging in neurotypical adults. While cross-sectional research has established that the aperiodic exponent—a measure of the spectral slope reflecting excitation/inhibition balance—declines with age, it remains unclear if within-person changes in this metric track specific cognitive declines over time. The authors aimed to determine if the longitudinal decline in the aperiodic exponent is a general marker of cognitive aging or specific to certain domains, such as sustained attention versus executive function. The researchers utilized a longitudinal dataset from the Dortmund Vital Study, comprising 276 neurotypical adults assessed at two timepoints approximately five years apart. The cohort was split into a training set (n = 222) and a held-out test set (n = 54). At each session, participants underwent task-free EEG recording (eyes open and closed) before and after completing cognitive-behavioral assessments: the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) for sustained attention and processing speed, and a modified Simon task for executive function. The primary analysis focused on the within-person change in the aperiodic exponent and its association with concurrent changes in behavioral performance, controlling for baseline age, sex, and baseline performance metrics. The results demonstrated that the aperiodic exponent significantly declined within individuals over the five-year interval, independent of baseline age. This neural decline was not driven by changes in oscillatory power across delta, theta, alpha, or beta bands. Crucially, the within-person reduction in the aperiodic exponent tracked concurrent slowing in PVT reaction times, indicating a link to sustained attention and processing speed. However, this association was domain-specific; changes in the aperiodic exponent were not associated with longitudinal changes in any Simon task measures, which assess executive function and interference control. The relationship between the aperiodic exponent and PVT performance was robust across various spectral fitting ranges and electrode groups, though it was not confirmed in the small, frozen held-out test set. These findings suggest that the longitudinal decline in aperiodic EEG activity is not a general index of cognitive aging but rather a domain-specific marker of attentional aging. The study supports the potential of the aperiodic exponent as a scalable, non-invasive electrophysiological biomarker for detecting age-related declines in sustained attention and processing speed in neurotypical populations. By dissociating attentional decline from executive function changes, the research clarifies the mechanistic specificity of aperiodic neural activity, offering a more precise tool for monitoring cognitive health trajectories in aging adults.

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• neuro workload indices