The effect of age on event-related potentials (ERP) associated with face naming and with the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state.

This study examined the effects of aging on the ERP components associated with the different processing stages in a face naming task. Two hundred photographs were presented to 13 young and 10 elderly adults, who had to press a button and then to say the name aloud (KNOW condition), or "Can't remember" if they were experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue state (TOT condition). Young adults showed larger ERP amplitudes in KNOW than in TOT in the 550-750 and 1550-2000ms intervals, but the older adults did not show any such differences. The older adults showed a specific lengthening in ERP latencies from 250ms onwards, and smaller mean amplitudes in the 550-750ms interval in the KNOW category and in the 750-1000ms interval in both categories, and a wider and more frontalized scalp topographical distribution of the ERP amplitudes than the young adults. The results may indicate activation of compensatory mechanisms in elderly adults.