Effects of human aging on the representation of state spaces

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Benjamin Eppinger
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535711399

One reason for the digital divide between younger and older adults is that many elderlies have problems navigating the complex displays and underlying (latent) structures of digital devices (Friemel, 2016; Huxhold et al., 2020; Mubarak & Suomi, 2022). As a consequence, older adults still prefer to buy train or airplane tickets at ticket counters with human agents rather than at vending machines or online (Schreder et al., 2012; Sengpiel, 2016). In a recent neuro-computational theory (Eppinger et al., 2023) we explain these age-related difficulties in learning and decision-making in terms of an underlying deficit in the representation of the state spaces of cognitive tasks. In the theory, we define a state space as the decision options (stimuli) that are available in a cognitive task, the contingencies between the options and the corresponding actions and outcomes that follow these actions (Wilson, Geana, et al., 2014). To make this concrete, when buying a train ticket at a vending machine we have multiple decision options (first vs. second class, discounts etc.), corresponding actions (that make us transition to new displays with more options (e.g., seat choices)) and outcomes (feedback that is associated with certain actions, such as different prices or payment options). All these features make up the state space of a given task (buying a train ticket). In the diminished state space (DSS) theory of human aging, we suggest that the behavioral deficits that we observe while older adults navigate these complex devices are due to impoverished neural representations of state spaces in the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus. In this grant proposal, I outline a research program that aims at testing the core behavioral and cognitive neuroscientific predictions of the diminished state space theory. The research program is structured into two work packages. The aim of the first work package (WP1) is to better understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying age-related deficits in state space representations and to investigate whether the DSS theory can be generalized to other cognitive domains such as cognitive control and reversal learning. The goal of the second work package (WP2) is to investigate the neural processes underlying age-related deficits in the representation and updating of state spaces using event-related potential (ERP) and wavelet analyses of electroencephalography (EEG) data. To study the neural representations of state spaces I will apply representational similarity analyses (RSA’s) to the EEG data. The goal of the research program is to test the overarching hypothesis of the diminished state space theory of human aging: Age-related performance deficits across different domains of complex cognition can be explained by a common deficit in the neural representation of state spaces of cognitive tasks.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Florian Bolenz; Professor Dr. Moritz Köster