Effects of Age and Task Complexity on EEG and Performance in Relation to Psychological States

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to analyse the effects of task complexity on the EEG spectral parameters and the extent to which age modulates this relationship. Subjects were divided into a junior and a senior group and engaged in a simple and a complex version of “Go/No go” tasks. Cognitive, subjective and electrophysiological data were combined. Our results indicated that there was an increase in alpha power over time only in the junior group in the simple task and the senior group in the complex one, suggesting that, depending on age, the increase in alpha band vary in a different way according with the degree of task complexity and could reflect some different phenomena. Cognitive performance were independent of age but for the main dimensions of motivation, seniors had higher scores, and they were less sleepy than juniors. Finally, this study showed correlations between cognitive performance, subjective evaluations and electrophysiological measures, and their value for understanding the subject’s engagement in a task.