Ageing differentially affects neural processing of different conflict types—an fMRI study

Interference control and conflict resolution is affected by ageing. There is increasing evidence that ageing does not compromise interference control in general but rather shows distinctive effects on different components of interference control. Different conflict types, (e.g. stimulus-stimulus (S-S) or stimulus-response (S-R) conflicts) trigger different cognitive processes and thus activate different neural networks. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we used a combined Flanker and Stimulus Response Conflict (SRC) task to investigate the effect of ageing on S-S and S-R conflicts. Behavioral data analysis revealed larger SRC effects in elderly. fMRI Results show that both age groups recruited similar regions (caudate nucleus, cingulate gyrus and middle occipital gyrus) during Flanker conflict processing. Furthermore, elderly show an additional activation pattern in parietal and frontal areas. In contrast, no common activation of both age groups was found in response to the SRC. These data suggest that ageing has distinctive effects on S-S and S-R conflicts.