As with the DR task, aged monkeys are slower to learn the task and perform more poorly selleck products as delay intervals are increased (Shamy et al., 2011). Behavioral flexibility is another frontal-dependent cognitive process that is compromised with aging. This has been studied using a variety of tasks, notably extradimensional set-shifting and reversal tasks in humans (Ridderinkhof et al., 2002; Marschner et al., 2005; Weiler et al., 2008), monkeys (Bartus et al., 1979; Lai et al., 1995; Voytko, 1999; Moore et al., 2003) and rats (Stephens et al., 1985; Barense et al., 2002; Schoenbaum et al., 2002; Nicolle & Baxter, 2003; Mizoguchi et al., 2010). Interestingly,
lesions of area 9 in marmoset monkeys affected extradimensional set-shifting performance, whereas lesions of the orbital PFC affected Z-VAD-FMK cost reversal performance (Dias et al., 1996). These data suggest that these tasks rely on different brain structures within the PFC. Extradimensional set-shifting refers to the problem of switching attention between cues that are in different perceptual dimensions in order to perform the task correctly. An example
of this is to train a rat to use light cues to determine which arm to select in a maze, and then shift the relevant cue to an auditory stimulus. When the extradimensional set-shifting occurs, the rat must shift its strategy and follow the sound cue in order to select the correct baited arm (e.g., Insel et al., 2012). In contrast, reversal learning refers to adapting a behavior to the changing contingencies required to reach a goal. For example, a rat can initially learn to press a lever in a ‘light-on’ condition to receive reward. After a reversal, the rat must adapt its behavior to press during the ‘light-off’ condition (e.g., Nomura et al., 2004). In parallel to the age-related cognitive deficits discussed above, aging is also associated with changes in attentional processes (Gazzaley & D’Esposito, 2007; Prakash et al., 2009; Hedden et al., 2012). This is accompanied by a greater susceptibility to distraction or interference during the delay period of a working memory task in humans (Bowles & Salthouse, 2003; Campbell et al., 2012) and monkeys (Bartus & Dean,
1979; Phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase Prendergast et al., 1998). Additionally, fMRI studies in older adults have reported that there is increased activity in brain regions mediating distraction (Milham et al., 2002; Stevens et al., 2008), and in cases where task-irrelevant stimuli are presented (Gazzaley et al., 2005). One of the most consistent finding in the literature on aging brain is a decline in the volume of the PFC of humans, monkeys and rodents. This decline is one of the earliest changes detected, and for almost fifty years it was thought that the decrease in frontal lobe volume was the result of cell loss (Haug, 1986; Peters, 2002). The early reports of cell loss, however, turned out to be an error resulting from differential shrinkage of young and aged tissue during processing (Haug et al.