Slower transitions between control states lead to reductions in cognitive flexibility over the lifespan.

ABSTRACT: Older adulthood is associated with declines across a wide range of cognitive functions, limiting the ability to perform tasks necessary for independent living. Changes in cognitive flexibility are a promising candidate mechanism underlying age-related changes in cognition, but the causes of inflexibility in older adulthood remain elusive. Here we focus on a core feature of flexible cognition: the ability to rapidly transition between different cognitive states when required to do so by changes in the environment or our goals (e.g., moving between states of low vs. high attentional focus). We put forward a dynamical systems model proposing that aging-related cognitive inflexibility arises in part from slowing of transitions between distinct configurations of cognitive control, even when the

SUBMITTER: Grahek I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12407910 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature