Preferred Sources of Information, Knowledge, and Acceptance of Automated Vehicle Systems: Effects of Gender and Age.

Automobile crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. . Age-related sensory-cognitive changes contribute to higher crash rates and increased physical frailty makes severe injury or death more likely when a crash occurs.

Comparing the Relative Strengths of EEG and Low-Cost Physiological Devices in Modeling Attention Allocation in Semiautonomous Vehicles.

As semiautonomous driving systems are becoming prevalent in late model vehicles, it is important to understand how such systems affect driver attention. This study investigated whether measures from low-cost devices monitoring peripheral physiological state were comparable to standard EEG in predicting lapses in attention to system failures. Twenty-five participants were equipped with a low-fidelity eye-tracker and heart rate monitor and with a high-fidelity NuAmps 32-channel quick-gel EEG system and asked to detect the presence of potential system failure while engaged in a fully autonomous lane changing driving task.

A functional promoter variant of the human formimidoyltransferase cyclodeaminase (FTCD) gene is associated with working memory performance in young but not older adults.

Objective: The central role of working memory in IQ and the high heritability of working memory performance motivated interest in identifying the specific genes underlying this heritability. The (formimidoyltransferase cyclodeaminase) gene was identified as a candidate gene for allelic association with working memory in part from genetic mapping studies of mouse Morris water maze performance.

Method: The present study tested variants of this gene for effects on a delayed match-to-sample task of a large sample of younger and older participants.

Hypothesis for cognitive effects of transcranial direct current stimulation: Externally- and internally-directed cognition.

A comprehensive explanation is lacking for the broad array of cognitive effects modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We advanced the testable hypothesis that tDCS to the default mode network (DMN) increases processing of goals and stored information at the expense of external events. We further hypothesized that tDCS to the dorsal attention network (DAN) increases processing of external events at the expense of goals and stored information.

Transcranial Doppler Sonography Reveals Reductions in Hemispheric Asymmetry in Healthy Older Adults during Vigilance.

Given that older adults are remaining longer in the workforce, their ability to perform demanding cognitive tasks such as vigilance assignments needs to be thoroughly examined, especially since many vigilance assignments affect public safety (e.g., aviation, medicine and long distance driving).

A role for attention during wilderness navigation: Comparing effects of BDNF, KIBRA, and CHRNA4.

Objective: To better understand what influences interindividual differences in ability to navigate in the wilderness, we hypothesized that better performance would be seen in (a) BDNF (rs6265) Val/Val homozygotes increased use of a spatial strategy, (b) KIBRA rs17070145 T/T homozygotes superior episodic memory, (c) CHRNA4 (rs1044396) T allele carriers better ability to focus visuospatial attention.

Method: Military cadets (n = 382) genotyped for BDNF, KIBRA, and CHRNA4 SNPs used a map and compass to navigate in unmarked woods. Participants completed a morning course within 3.

Individual differences in reasoning and visuospatial attention are associated with prefrontal and parietal white matter tracts in healthy older adults.

Objective: Although reasoning and attention are 2 cognitive processes necessary for ensuring the efficiency of many everyday activities in older adults, the role of white matter integrity in these processes has been little studied. This is an important question due to the role of white matter integrity as a neural substrate of cognitive aging. Here, we sought to examine the white matter tracts subserving reasoning and visuospatial attention in healthy older adults.

The mechanisms of far transfer from cognitive training: Review and hypothesis.

Objective: General intelligence is important for success in daily life, fueling interest in developing cognitive training as an intervention to improve fluid ability (Gf). A major obstacle to the design of effective cognitive interventions has been the paucity of hypotheses bearing on mechanisms underlying transfer of cognitive training to Gf. Despite the large amounts of money and time currently being expended on cognitive training, there is little scientific agreement on how, or even whether, Gf can be heightened by such training.

Transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates cognitive multi-task performance differentially depending on anode location and subtask.

There is a need to facilitate acquisition of real world cognitive multi-tasks that require long periods of training (e.g., air traffic control, intelligence analysis, medicine).

Healthy aging increases the cognitive effects of two genes that influence extracellular dopamine.

We hypothesized that normal variation in genes influencing the bioavailability of dopamine in prefrontal cortex contribute to inter-individual differences in working memory (WM), particularly in healthy old age. To test this, 858 healthy young, middle-aged, and older people were tested on a spatial WM task and genotyped for catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT VAL158MET) and dopamine betahydroxylase (DBH; C-1021T) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Since these genes encode enzymes influencing levels of extracellular dopamine, important for WM, we reasoned that individuals with low activity alleles of each SNP (less efficient degradation of dopamine by COMT and less efficient conversion of dopamine to norepinephrine by DBH) would have higher levels of extracellular dopamine and therefore better WM performance.

Longitudinal change in working memory as a function of APOE genotype in midlife and old age.

Previous investigations into whether the APOE-ε4 allele exerts cognitive effects at midlife have been inconclusive. We have advanced a "cognitive phenotype" hypothesis arguing that the ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) is associated with lower efficiency of neuronal plasticity thereby resulting in poorer cognitive performance independently of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (Greenwood et al., ).

Differential contributions of dorso-ventral and rostro-caudal prefrontal white matter tracts to cognitive control in healthy older adults.

Prefrontal cortex mediates cognitive control by means of circuitry organized along dorso-ventral and rostro-caudal axes. Along the dorso-ventral axis, ventrolateral PFC controls semantic information, whereas dorsolateral PFC encodes task rules. Along the rostro-caudal axis, anterior prefrontal cortex encodes complex rules and relationships between stimuli, whereas posterior prefrontal cortex encodes simple relationships between stimuli and behavior.

Neurocognitive enhancement in older adults: comparison of three cognitive training tasks to test a hypothesis of training transfer in brain connectivity.

The ultimate goal of cognitive enhancement as an intervention for age-related cognitive decline is transfer to everyday cognitive functioning. Development of training methods that transfer broadly to untrained cognitive tasks (far transfer) requires understanding of the neural bases of training and far transfer effects. We used cognitive training to test the hypothesis that far transfer is associated with altered attentional control demands mediated by the dorsal attention network and trained sensory cortex.

Dopamine beta hydroxylase genotype identifies individuals less susceptible to bias in computer-assisted decision making.

Computerized aiding systems can assist human decision makers in complex tasks but can impair performance when they provide incorrect advice that humans erroneously follow, a phenomenon known as "automation bias." The extent to which people exhibit automation bias varies significantly and may reflect inter-individual variation in the capacity of working memory and the efficiency of executive function, both of which are highly heritable and under dopaminergic and noradrenergic control in prefrontal cortex. The dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH) gene is thought to regulate the differential availability of dopamine and norepinephrine in prefrontal cortex.

Neuronal and cognitive plasticity: a neurocognitive framework for ameliorating cognitive aging.

What is the neurocognitive basis for the considerable individual differences observed in functioning of the adult mind and brain late in life? We review the evidence that in healthy old age the brain remains capable of both neuronal and cognitive plasticity, including in response to environmental and experiential factors. Neuronal plasticity (e.g.

Dissociation of visual C1 and P1 components as a function of attentional load: an event-related potential study.

The earliest cortical location at which attention influences visual processing is controversial. To address this issue, the C1 and P1 components of cue-elicited ERPs were examined in a spatially-cued task under high and low levels of attentional load (active vs. passive viewing).

Early interaction between perceptual load and involuntary attention: An event-related potential study.

Whether selective attention affects C1, the first (earliest) visual cortical component of the event-related potential (ERP), remains controversial. We used a cued, involuntary attention task requiring discrimination of targets under low and high levels of perceptual load to examine early attentional modulation in visual cortex. Potential confounds due to physical stimulus differences between load conditions and cue-target sensory interaction were minimized.

Perceptual load interacts with involuntary attention at early processing stages: event-related potential studies.

Perceptual load is known to influence the locus of attentional selection in the brain but through an unknown underlying mechanism. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how perceptual load interacts with cue-driven involuntary attention. Perceptual load was manipulated in a line orientation discrimination task in which target location was cued involuntarily by means of peripheral cues.

The influence of apolipoprotein E genotype on visuospatial attention dissipates after age 80.

Although it is established that apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 allele increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), epidemiological studies indicate that genetic risk decreases late in life. This raises the question of whether the effects of APOE on cognition that are seen in midlife arise from a cognitive phenotype of APOE or from the presence of early AD in some APOE-e4 carriers. The authors addressed this question by comparing the cognitive consequences of variation in the APOE gene between individuals over the age of 80 (old-old) and middle-aged and young-old individuals.

Interactive effects of APOE and CHRNA4 on attention and white matter volume in healthy middle-aged and older adults.

In the present study, we investigated age-related changes in interactions between efficiency of neuronal repair mechanisms and efficiency of cholinergic neurotransmission in the context of attentional orienting. In addition, we explored white matter volume changes as possible neuronal underpinnings. A sample of 230 healthy middle-aged (53-64 years) and older (65-75 years) adults was genotyped for polymorphisms of APOE and CHRNA4, a nicotinic receptor subunit gene.

Specificity of the effect of a nicotinic receptor polymorphism on individual differences in visuospatial attention.

Cortical neurotransmitter availability is known to exert domain-specific effects on cognitive performance. Hence, normal variation in genes with a role in neurotransmission may also have specific effects on cognition. We tested this hypothesis by examining associations between polymorphisms in genes affecting cholinergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission and individual differences in visuospatial attention.