Experienced stress produces inhibitory deficits in old adults’ Flanker task performance: First evidence for lifetime stress effects beyond memory

• Study assessed impact of cumulative life stress on elderlies’ Flanker task performance.
• High stress elderly show general slowing of reaction times for in-/congruent arrays.
• Slowed reaction times correlate with higher levels of alpha ERD by high stress elderly.
• Findings suggest a break-down of inhibition in sensory and attentional domains.

Studies regarding aged individuals’ performance on the Flanker task differ with respect to reporting impaired or intact executive control. Past work has explained this discrepancy by hypothesising that elderly individuals use increased top–down control mechanisms advantageous to Flanker performance. This study investigated this mechanism, focussing on cumulative experienced stress as a factor that may impact on its execution, thereby leading to impaired performance. Thirty elderly and thirty young participants completed a version of the Flanker task paired with electroencephalographic recordings of the alpha frequency, whose increased synchronisation indexes inhibitory processes. Among high stress elderly individuals, findings revealed a general slowing of reaction times for congruent and incongruent stimuli, which correlated with alpha desynchronisation for both stimulus categories. Results found high performing (low stress) elderly revealed neither a behavioural nor electrophysiological difference compared to young participants. Therefore, rather than impacting on top–down compensatory mechanisms, findings indicate that stress may affect elderly participants’ inhibitory control in attentional and sensorimotor domains.