Mental Effort and Counterfactuals Modulate Language Understanding: ERP Evidence in Older Adults

The relationship between language and physical effort in older adults is a field that is scarcely explored in the literature associated with embodiment. An electrophysiological experiment was conducted to explore the modulation of two linguistic contexts: factual and counter-factual, in relation to physical and mental effort using electrophysiological components. 27 older adults (M = 70.34 years, SD = 4.82, 15 women and 12 men) read sentences on a computer screen and responded to an activation test. The results indicate that the linguistic, factual, and counterfactual contexts, as well as the embodiment parameter of mental effort modulate the understanding of language and participate with variable preponderance in different time windows. Furthermore, counterfactuality seems to facilitate the processing of high mental effort, and both factual and counterfactual language elicit the N400 component. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on embodied cognition by providing novel insights into the nuances of cognitive demands involved in language processing in aging population, paving the way for developing targeted interventions aimed at improving communication and cognitive well-being in older adults.