Region-specific reduction of auditory sensory gating in older adults

• It remains debatable if auditory sensory gating (SG) is affected by aging.
• MEG and MNE methods were used to examine auditory M100 SG in young and old adults.
• Fronto-temporo-parietal circuits were identified by using MNE source imaging.
• The elderly exhibited a higher M100 SG ratio in temporal and frontal regions.
• This study suggests a deficient age-related SG to repetitive stimuli.

Aging has been associated with declines in sensory–perceptual processes. Sensory gating (SG), or repetition suppression, refers to the attenuation of neural activity in response to a second stimulus and is considered to be an automatic process to inhibit redundant sensory inputs. It is controversial whether SG deficits, as tested with an auditory paired-stimulus protocol, accompany normal aging in humans. To reconcile the debates arising from event-related potential studies, we recorded auditory neuromagnetic reactivity in 20 young and 19 elderly adult men and determined the neural activation by using minimum-norm estimate (MNE) source modeling. SG of M100 was calculated by the ratio of the response to the second stimulus over that to the first stimulus. MNE results revealed that fronto-temporo-parietal networks were implicated in the M100 SG. Compared to the younger participants, the elderly showed selectively increased SG ratios in the anterior superior temporal gyrus, anterior middle temporal gyrus, temporal pole and orbitofrontal cortex, suggesting an insufficient age-related gating to repetitive auditory stimulation. These findings also highlight the loss of frontal inhibition of the auditory cortex in normal aging.