Impact of aging on crossmodal attention switching

Schils, Ludivine A. P.; Koch, Iring; Huang, Pi‐Chun; Hsieh, Shulan; Stephan, Denise N. · 2024 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1007/s00426-024-01992-3

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Summary

This study investigates how aging affects crossmodal attention switching, specifically examining whether older adults experience specific impairments in shifting attention between visual and auditory modalities or if their performance deficits are attributable to general cognitive slowing. The research addresses a gap in literature regarding age-related flexibility in crossmodal distraction, aiming to distinguish between general processing speed declines and specific difficulties in maintaining multiple task sets or inhibiting irrelevant modalities. The researchers employed a cued crossmodal spatial attention switching paradigm with 84 participants: 42 young adults (ages 19–30) and 42 older adults (ages 64–80). Participants responded to unimodal central cues (visual or auditory) that indicated the relevant modality for bimodal lateralized stimuli (visual and auditory targets presented simultaneously on the left or right). The design included single-task blocks, where the target modality remained constant, and mixed-task blocks, where the target modality varied randomly. This allowed for the calculation of mixing costs (performance difference between single-task and mixed-task repetition trials, reflecting cognitive load) and switch costs (performance difference between repetition and switch trials within mixed blocks, reflecting flexibility). Data were analyzed using ANOVA, with response times log-transformed to account for general age-related slowing. Results indicated that older adults exhibited significantly longer response times than young adults, consistent with general slowing. Crucially, the study found no specific age-related increase in attention switch costs; after controlling for general slowing, switch costs were equivalent between age groups. However, older adults demonstrated significantly larger mixing costs than young adults, indicating greater difficulty in maintaining and updating multiple task sets simultaneously. Additionally, a crossmodal congruency effect was observed, where performance was better when distractor and target locations aligned. This effect was slightly larger in older adults during switch trials, suggesting minor differences in distractor processing, but overall, the ability to handle crossmodal distraction was not severely impaired. The findings suggest that age-related deficits in crossmodal attention switching are driven by general slowing and increased difficulty with cognitive load (mixing costs) rather than a specific impairment in the flexibility to switch attention between modalities. This implies that older adults can effectively switch attention across sensory modalities but struggle more with the sustained mental effort required to keep multiple potential tasks active. The study highlights that while aging impacts the capacity to manage complex, multi-task environments, the fundamental mechanism of crossmodal attention switching remains intact.

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Topics

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• multisensory crossmodal
• task switching