Context processing in older adults: Evidence for a theory relating cognitive control to neurobiology in healthy aging

A theory of cognitive aging is presented in which healthy older adults are hypothesized to suffer from disturbances in the processing of context that impair cognitive control function across multiple domains, including attent ion, inhibition, and working memory. These cognitive disturbances are postu lated to be directly related to age-related decline in the function of the dopamine (DA) system in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). A connectionist comput ational model is described that implements specific mechanisms for the role of DA and PFC in context processing. The behavioral predictions of the mod el were tested in a large sample of older (N = 81) and young (N = 175) adul ts performing variants of a simple cognitive control task that placed diffe rential demands on context processing. Older adults exhibited both performa nce decrements and, counterintuitively, performance improvements that are i n close agreement with model predictions.