Does Age Matter?

Abstract
Brain-based interaction is discussed as a strategy to make assistive technologies more user-oriented. We investigated whether aging influences discrimination of neuroelectrical signatures underlying affective user reactions to system-initiated assistance behavior. Electroencephalography was used to examine the reactivity of the cortical system for two different age groups during interaction with a system that induce positive and negative affective events by supporting or impeding goal achievement during a navigation task. We found that affect processing during the interaction task remains unaffected by natural cortical alteration processes, but varied to different degrees across cortical regions between the two age groups. More specifically, discrimination based on P300 correlated with age, thus revealing a distinct intrinsic neurocognitive strategy in the aging brain. Addressing these neuroelectrical signatures may enable neuroadaptive assistance systems to perform user-specific adjustments.