Cardiac deceleration and E-wave brain potential components in young, middle-aged and elderly adults

Event-related potentials (ERPs), heart rate, and behavioral data were recorded from young, middle-aged, and elderly adults during an S1-S2 recognition memory paradigm. Anticipatory and evoked cardiac decelerations decreased significantly with age, as did the accuracy of recognition memory. The E-wave prior to S2 did not differ with age, however, and was not correlated with heart rate deceleration in any age group. Correlations between physiological measures and performance were weak in all groups. Taken together, the data provide little support for the hypothesis that the poorer recognition memory of older adults is related to an increasing uncoupling of E-wave and anticipatory heart rate with age.