Age-dependent modulation of inhibitory control: behavioral and EEG evidence from the Stroop paradigm

Aim: Aging is associated with reduced inhibitory control, leading to challenges in attention, decision-making, and everyday cognitive tasks. To better understand these difficulties, it is important to adopt well-designed experimental approaches that specifically assess inhibitory control mechanisms. A commonly used tool to assess how inhibitory control changes with age is the Stroop Color and Word Test, which evaluates the capacity to suppress automatic responses in favor of appropriate behavior. Methods: In the present study, a sample of 91 healthy individuals was examined to investigate how cognitive functions underlying Stroop task performance vary across the adult lifespan. Pearson correlations were computed between participants’ age and response times (RTs) recorded in each of the three Stroop conditions, as well as the mean RTs across all conditions. Furthermore, to assess whether these behavioral patterns were mirrored at the neurophysiological level, power spectral density (PSD) analyses were performed on resting-state electroencephalographic recordings. Results: In all cases, Pearson correlations were strongly significant, with stronger effects observed as task difficulty increased. At the neurophysiological level, a correlation emerged between RTs and PSD in the occipital region within the alpha 2 frequency band, which, like the behavioral effects, became progressively stronger with increasing task difficulty. In contrast, no significant correlations were observed for the alpha 1 band, suggesting that these neurophysiological changes are specific to higher alpha frequencies linked to increased cognitive demands and inhibitory control processes. Conclusions: These findings contribute to a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying age-related declines in inhibitory control and may inform the development of interventions aimed at mitigating cognitive deficits in older adults.