Sustained and transient processes in event-based prospective memory in adolescence and adulthood

Description: Prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive processes associated with remembering to perform an intended action after a delay. In event-based PM the action is performed in response to an event (cue) in the environment. Varying the salience of PM cues while keeping the intended response constant, we investigated the extent to which participants relied on strategic monitoring, through proactive, top-down, control, or on spontaneous retrieval bottom-up processes. There is mixed evidence regarding developmental improvements in event-based PM performance after age 13. We compared PM performance and associated sustained and transient neural correlates in 28 typically developing adolescents (12-17 years) and 19 adults (23-30 years). Lower PM cue salience associated with slower ongoing task (OT) reaction times, reflected by increased μ Ex-Gaussian parameter, and sustained increases in frontoparietal activation during OT blocks, both thought to reflect greater proactive control supporting cue monitoring. Behavioural and neural correlates of PM trials were not specifically modulated by cue salience, revealing little difference in reactive control between conditions. The effect of cue salience was similar across age groups, suggesting that adolescents are able to adapt proactive control engagement to PM tasks demands. Exploratory analyses showed that younger, but not older, adolescents were less accurate and slower in PM trials relative to OT trials than adults, and showed greater transient activation in PM trials in an occipito-temporal cluster. These results provide evidence of both mature and still maturing aspects of cognitive processes associated with implementation of an intention after a delay during early adolescence.

Communities: developmental

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