AGING AND ATTENTIONAL NETWORKS ORIENTING , ALERTING AND EXECUTIVE CONTROL IN ELDERLY PEOPLE

Ageing is associated with attentional performance decrease. However, it is not clear if there is a global attentional deficit or specific attentional networks impairment. This study aims to explore age effects on the three attentional networks (Alerting, Orienting and Executive Control). Thirty students (age: 23.6±0.85), thirty middle-age adults (age: 58.3±0.85) and twenty-seven older adults (age: 71.4±0.89) participated in the study and completed the Attentional Network Task Interaction-Fruit. Results show that Reaction Time was reduced during the process of healthy ageing, alerting and orienting effect became more pronounced, while the executive effect remained unchanged. Moreover, old adults show increased attentional costs. It is interesting to note how the difference in orienting, unlike other networks, is independent by general slowing. Given the importance of attentional orienting for everyday functions, it is relevant to understand the nature of this deficit to schedule interventions aimed at counteracting it.