Jennifer Kemp

Theory of Mind in normal ageing and neurodegenerative pathologies.

This paper reviews findings in three subcomponents of social cognition (i.e., Theory of Mind, facial emotion recognition, empathy) during ageing. Changes over time in social cognition were evaluated in normal ageing and in patients with various neurodegenerative pathologies, such as Alzheimers disease, mild cognitive impairment, frontal and temporal variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Parkinsons disease. Findings suggest a decline in social cognition with normal ageing, a decline that is at least partially independent of a more general cognitive or executive decline. The investigation of neurodegenerative pathologies showing specific deficits in Theory of Mind in relation to damage to specific cerebral regions led us to suggest a neural network involved in Theory of Mind processes, namely a fronto-subcortical loop linking the basal ganglia to the regions of the frontal lobes.

The association between inhibition and pain tolerance in the elderly: Evidence from event‐related potentials

Age‐related alterations in both pain perception and inhibitory functions have been observed, but the relationship between the two in older adults remains unclear. Previous studies were mainly based on behavioural measures which do not allow assessment of underlying neural mechanisms.

Differential processing of hierarchical visual stimuli in young and older healthy adults: An event-related potentials (ERP) study.

OBJECTIVE In tasks involving hierarchical stimuli, young subjects typically show faster RTs and higher accuracy rates in discriminating target stimuli at the global level than at the local level. This pattern of performance is called the global precedence effect (GPE). As individuals age, this patterns shifts to a local precedence effect (LPE). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the decline in GPE in older adults may be due to impairment of grouping processes. METHOD The authors recorded event-related potentials (ERP) while young and elderly subjects performed a global/local task in response to hierarchical stimuli, and they focused on the P300 component as an index of grouping processes. RESULTS Compared to young subjects, elderly individuals showed a lower rate of correct discrimination in global processing conditions, but a higher rate of correct responses in local processing conditions, confirming a shift from a GPE to a LPE during aging. Interestingly, the P300 amplitude increased selectively during global processing in young adults but was not modulated by processing level in older participants. By contrast, the modulation of the early component N2 as a function of precedence level remained preserved in older subjects. CONCLUSION The results suggest that the precedence level may depend on early processes that are unaffected during aging. This may explain the preservation of local precedence effect in elderly individuals. However, global processing may depend on extra attentional processing occurring at later stages. The alteration of later processing may explain the decline in global precedence during aging. (PsycINFO Database Record

Age-related decline in thermal adaptation capacities: An evoked potentials study

Aging is associated with changes in thermosensitivity and decreases in the functionality of the autonomic thermoregulation. The underlying mechanisms are, however, not fully understood. Elderly subjects may undergo functional changes in the integration process of the thermal sensory system, especially in their thermal adaptation capacities. To verify this hypothesis, we compared thermal evoked responses in younger and older subjects exposed to thermoneutral (27 °C) and warm (30 °C) environments. In the warm environment, the amplitudes of thermal evoked potentials (EPs) were significantly lower in older than in younger subjects, whereas in the thermoneutral environment, the EP amplitudes were similar in both groups. These findings suggest that thermal adaptation capacities are reduced in elderly individuals, due to a dysfunction of C-fibers with aging, particularly expressed by lowered adaptation capacities to temperature variations.