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Effects of aging on multisensory attentional control and its association with executive capacity

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Edwin Roberto Ramírez Benítez^1,2 (), Rodolfo Solís-Vivanco^1,2; ¹National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Manuel Velasco Suárez, ²National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM

Attentional control is essential for goal-directed behavior and requires active suppression of distractors. Alpha oscillations (8–14 Hz) have been proposed as a neural mechanism of functional inhibition during multisensory (audiovisual) attention tasks, indirectly enhancing processing of task-relevant information and optimizing behavioral performance. However, it remains unclear whether aging modulates anticipatory alpha suppression in multisensory tasks, and if this neural mechanism is associated with executive capacity. The present study examined temporal and topographical dynamics of anticipatory alpha activity (8–14 Hz) and event-related potentials of the congruence effect (ERPce) evoked by simultaneous visual and auditory syllables during a crossmodal attention task in cognitively preserved young and older adults. Anticipatory alpha modulation was computed by subtracting alpha power during auditory from visual attention, and the ERPce by subtracting incongruent from congruent trials. Non-parametric permutation tests were performed over occipito-parietal and fronto-central channels during -0.4 to 0 s for alpha, and -200 to 1100 ms for ERPce. Older adults showed reduced alpha modulation across attended modalities and a larger behavioral congruence effect during auditory attention, accompanied by lower auditory sensitivity (d′) and an enhanced late positive component (P800ce). The P800ce amplitude was associated with poorer performance on neuropsychological tasks of inhibitory control. Also, reduced frontal alpha suppression correlated with increased P800ce amplitude, indicating that diminished anticipatory suppression of irrelevant information relates to less efficient attentional filtering. Together, these findings indicate an aging-related reduction in the ability to suppress distracting sensory information under multisensory attention contexts, which also impacts executive efficiency.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Multisensory