Phasic alerting enhances spatial orienting in healthy aging but not in mild cognitive impairment.

Results provide support for the presence of increased compensatory interactions between attentional networks in healthy aging that may be no longer effective with the emergence of clinical symptoms in MCI. The demonstration of qualitatively distinct effects of healthy aging and MCI suggests that behavioral tests of attentional network interactions may serve as cognitive markers in individuals at increased risk for developing AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).