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. 2019 Jun 28:11:165.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2019.00165. eCollection 2019.

Markers of Novelty Processing in Older Adults Are Stable and Reliable

Hura Behforuzi  1 , Nicole C Feng  1 , Adam R Billig  1 , Eliza Ryan  1 , Erich S Tusch  1 , Phillip J Holcomb  2 , Abdul H Mohammed  3   4 , Kirk R Daffner  1
Affiliations

Markers of Novelty Processing in Older Adults Are Stable and Reliable

Hura Behforuzi et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Exploratory behavior and responsiveness to novelty play an important role in maintaining cognitive function in older adults. Inferences about age- or disease-related differences in neural and behavioral responses to novelty are most often based on results from single experimental testing sessions. There has been very limited research on whether such findings represent stable characteristics of populations studied, which is essential if investigators are to determine the result of interventions aimed at promoting exploratory behaviors or draw appropriate conclusions about differences in the processing of novelty across diverse clinical groups. The goal of the current study was to investigate the short-term test-retest reliability of event-related potential (ERP) and behavioral responses to novel stimuli in cognitively normal older adults. ERPs and viewing durations were recorded in 70 healthy older adults participating in a subject-controlled visual novelty oddball task during two sessions occurring 7 weeks apart. Mean midline P3 amplitude and latency, mean midline amplitude during successive 50 ms intervals, temporospatial factors derived from principal component analysis (PCA), and viewing duration in response to novel stimuli were measured during each session. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no reliable differences in the value of any measurements between Time 1 and 2. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between Time 1 and 2 were excellent for mean P3 amplitude (ICC = 0.86), the two temporospatial factors consistent with the P3 components (ICC of 0.88 and 0.76) and viewing duration of novel stimuli (ICC = 0.81). Reliability was only fair for P3 peak latency (ICC = 0.56). Successive 50 ms mean amplitude measures from 100 to 1,000 ms yielded fair to excellent reliabilities, and all but one of the 12 temporospatial factors identified demonstrated ICCs in the good to excellent range. We conclude that older adults demonstrate substantial stability in ERP and behavioral responses to novel visual stimuli over a 7-week period. These results suggest that older adults may have a characteristic way of processing novelty that appears resistant to transient changes in their environment or internal states, which can be indexed during a single testing session. The establishment of reliable measures of novelty processing will allow investigators to determine whether proposed interventions have an impact on this important aspect of behavior.

Keywords: ERP; aging; novelty processing; test-retest reliability; visual modality.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of an experimental run.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean [± standard error of the mean (SEM)] viewing duration (in ms) in response to novel stimuli.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Topographic maps of the mean amplitude for every other 50 ms interval (beginning 50–100 ms) of novelty processing at Time-1 vs. Time-2 (Note that the scales are different across the time frames).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Grand average event-related potential (ERP) plots in response to novel stimuli at Fz, Cz, and Pz at Time-1 and Time-2.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bar graph of the mean (± SEM) P3 amplitude (in μV) in response to novel stimuli at Fz, Cz, and Pz at Time-1 and Time-2.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between Time-1 and Time-2 of the mean amplitude for each 50 ms post novel stimuli at Fz, Cz, and Pz.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Grand average ERP plots in response to target stimuli at Fz, Cz, and Pz at Time-1 and Time-2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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