Older adults' attention temporarily improves when prefrontal cortex activity is increased

What is it about?

We used an external brain stimulation device to increase levels of brain activity (neuronal excitability) within the right prefrontal cortex in older adults while they performed a computerised test measuring their sustained attention. During brain stimulation, the older adults’ ability to sustain attention was improved, as compared with placebo stimulation. Brain activity during stimulation was measured using electroencephelography (EEG). We observed that increasing right prefrontal cortex activity enhanced EEG markers that have previously been associated with adaptive, compensatory processes in the ageing brain.

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Why is it important?

Sustained attention is fundamental to healthy ageing. Older adults who are better able to maintain attention are at a lower risk of falling, are less frail, make better recoveries following stroke, and may be better protected againsts dementia. Our results suggest that the right prefrontal cortex may be a viable cortical hub to upregulate in order to redress sustained attention difficulties in older adults. These findings hold valuable information for developing interventions to improve sustained attention in persons experiencing pathological ageing conditions such as right hemisphere stroke, where sustained attention problems can be pervasive and predictive of worse recovery.

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