Experimental Aging Research最新文献

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between age, chronic pain, cognitive function, and pain sensitivity by comparing older and younger adults. The study included 30 older adults with chronic pain, 31 older adults without pain, 26 young adults with chronic pain, and 31 young adults without pain. Cognitive functions were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination, Stroop Test, and Clock Drawing Test. Pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were measured in the trapezius, deltoid, and tibialis anterior regions using an algometer. Significant differences were observed in most cognitive functions and PPTs between the groups, particularly between older adults with and without chronic pain, and young adults with and without chronic pain. Generally, moderate to strong negative correlations were found between pain sensitivity and cognitive performance in older adults with chronic pain. In contrast, young adults with chronic pain showed weaker and fewer correlations between pain sensitivity and cognitive function. Chronic pain has a more significant negative impact on cognitive function in older adults, who also exhibit stronger associations between pain sensitivity and cognitive decline. In contrast, younger adults with chronic pain demonstrate weaker correlations, potentially due to adaptive coping mechanisms. These findings highlight the need for age-specific interventions targeting both pain and cognitive decline in older populations.

Background: We examined how older and younger adults corrected misconceptions related to psychology when given the opportunity to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL).

Method: In Experiment 1, young and older adults took an initial true/false test of 50 misconceptions, rated their confidence in their answer, and received immediate corrective feedback consisting of the correct answer and its explanation. In Experiment 2, immediately after receiving correct answer feedback, individuals chose whether to receive more information (i.e. the explanation of the correct answer; SRL). Individuals were retested after 1 week.

Results: In both experiments, young and older adults held similar numbers of misconceptions when initially tested and after feedback. Though young and older adults chose to receive more information about similar numbers of statements, older adults were less likely to choose detailed information about their correct answers compared to younger adults. On the final test, older adults benefitted more than younger adults from only brief feedback, but were less likely to correct their high confidence misconceptions.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that older adults' regulation of knowledge learning is preserved, but how older adults' update knowledge may depend on a host of factors.

Background/study context: The main aim of the current study was to investigate the role of adult age in the moral stereotyping of moral foundations. The five core moral foundations of Moral Foundations Theory were measured, including the individualizing foundations of harm and fairness and the binding foundations of ingroup loyalty, authority, and purity.

Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions: a self-evaluation condition where participants completed the moral questionnaire as themselves, a condition where participants provided ratings as they believed a typical younger adult would answer them, and a condition where participants provided ratings as they believed a typical older adult would answer them. Experiment 1 included younger and older adult participants, and Experiment 2 included participants across adulthood (range 19 to 85).

Results: Older adulthood was associated with higher individualizing foundations ratings (Experiment 1, Experiment 2) and higher binding foundations ratings (Experiment 1). Results found significant moral stereotyping, with participants tending to imagine older adults providing significantly lower ratings on individualizing moral foundations than younger adults but higher ratings on binding moral foundations. Finally, older adults were more accurate in their predictions of the moral foundations ratings of younger adults than vice versa.

Conclusion: The authors suggest that adult age group is a salient factor that people form generalizations about regarding moral foundations, which could then contribute to either real or perceived "generational divides" on various sociocultural issues.

Master athletes are a model of successful aging as their high level of physical activity limits the age-related change of physiological functions. This model is used to investigate how a high level of physical activity impacts cognitive functioning. We aim to study the effect of a high level of physical activity on the ability to manage interferences and binding processes in episodic encoding in an ecological situation. Fifty-five participants were recruited and separated into three groups: 18 master athletes (MA, M = 69.39, SD = 1.13 years), 18 young adults (YA, M = 22.44, SD = 1.10 years), and 19 older adults with a moderate level of physical activity (OA, M = 72.11, SD = 1.10 years). Participants performed an episodic memory task assessing binding processes by encoding under either full or divided attention using a virtual reality technique. After encoding under divided attention, MA outperformed OA in the interference task as well as in the binding score on both free and cued recall. After encoding under full attention, YA and MA did not differ in the number of events recalled in cued recall. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between weekly volume of physical activity and cognitive performance. Binding and interference management, and probably the hippocampus along with prefrontal areas, benefit the most from a sustained and regular physical activity in master athletes.

Objectives: As one of the common senile syndromes characterized by the co-existence of physical frailty and cognitive impairment without dementia, the occurrence of cognitive frailty (CF) increases the risk of adverse health outcomes in older adults. However, its reversibility has attracted the interest of researchers in the search for effective interventions. A growing number of studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of regular physical exercise intervention on cognitive frailty in older adults with CF, but findings remain inconclusive. This study aimed to synthesize the pooled effect of current regular exercise intervention in community-dwelling older adults with cognitive frailty.

Methods: Nine electronic databases (Cochrane Library, PubMed, EBSCOHost, Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP and SinoMed) were searched from their inception to 15 May, 2024. The Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (ROB 2) for RCTs was applied to assess the methodological quality. The mean difference or standardized mean difference with 95% CIs was calculated by using Stata 18.0.

Results: Seventeen eligible studies involving a total of 2239 participants were included. The pooled results showed that older adults with CF in the intervention group had significant improvement in global cognitive function performance (MMSE scores: MD = 1.93 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.85, p < .0001, and MoCA scores: MD = 3.24, 95% CI: 1.57 to 4.91, p < .0001), executive function (time of TMT-B test: MD = -20.73, 95% CI: -33.96 to -7.50, p = .002), physical frailty state (Fried frailty phenotype scores: MD = -1.48, 95% CI: -2.37 to -0.58, p = .001, and EFS scores: MD = -0.81 points, 95% CI: -1.13 to -0.49, p < .0001), grip strength (SMD = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.15 to 1.07, p = .02), gait and balance (time of TUG: MD = -2.62, 95% CI: -4.12 to -1.11, p = .001), balance (BBS scores: MD = 8.56, 95% CI:- 3.37 to 13.75, p = .001) and quality of life (SMD = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.30 to 1.21, p = .001).

Conclusions: More than eight weeks of regular exercise interventions may improve global cognitive function and physical frailty status, but the effect on specific domains of cognitive or physical function needs further study to confirm.

Objective: We compared how young and older adults' memory self-efficacy (MSE) responded to changes in item framing and examined how MSE relates to depressive affect, humility, and objective memory abilities in these two age groups.

Method: Ninety-one young and eighty-five older adults completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale, the Humility Inventory-15 and a memory self-efficacy questionnaire that contained 27 items from the Memory Assessment Clinics-Self-Report Scale worded positively, neutrally or negatively. They then took an objective memory test.

Results: Older adults' MSE was affected by item framing with neutrally worded items resulting in higher MSE than positively or negatively worded items. In contrast, the MSE of young adults was impervious to framing effects. Regardless of question framing, increased depressive affect related to lower MSE across both age groups, whereas higher humility counterintuitively predicted higher MSE in young, but not older, adults.

Conclusions: Together, our results support past research and suggest new avenues for understanding the many factors that influence the subjective memory of young and older adults. Based on our findings, we recommend that researchers and practitioners utilize positively worded questionnaire items to evaluate MSE given that this approach was least vulnerable to depressive affect and resulted in the most accurate memory self-reports.

Purpose: The evidence of the benefits of Tai Chi Chuan on cognitive functions, aerobic capacity and mood states of older adults remain unclear. A cross-sectional study was designed to explore the potential effects of Tai Chi Chuan on these aspects.

Methods: A total of 50 older adults were divided into the Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) (n = 17), aerobic exercise (AEE) (n = 17), and sedentary lifestyle (SL) (n = 16) groups. Differences in P3 amplitude, P3 latency, reaction time, maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂max) and mood states were observed.

Results: The reaction time of the subjects in the TCC group was significantly shorter than that in the SL group (p < .05). Meanwhile, the VO₂max of the subjects in the TCC and AEE groups was significantly higher than that in the SL group (p < .001). The P3 amplitude of the subjects in the TCC group was significantly higher than that in the SL group (p < .01). Higher P3 amplitude and shorter latency were found among the subjects in the TCC group compared with those in the SL group (p < .05). In addition, the P3 amplitudes of the subjects at the Cz and Pz sites were significantly correlated with reaction time and VO₂max. The results of the mood states test indicated that TCC improves positive mood and suppresses negative mood among older adults.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that TCC may provide superior benefits for the cognitive functions and psychology of older adults compared with aerobic exercises.

Objectives: This study examined (1) the association between spousal education and epigenetic age acceleration among US older adults, and (2) whether this varies by their own education level and marital history.

Methods: Data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study were utilized to explore the associations between spousal education and epigenetic age acceleration, measured with four second- and third-generation epigenetic clocks (i.e. GrimAge, PhenoAge, Zhang and DunedinPoAm38).

Results: Higher spousal education was associated with slower epigenetic aging in three of the four clocks, but only among individuals with at least 12 years of education. Moreover, the association between spousal education and slower epigenetic aging, particularly with the GrimAge clock, was stronger among those previously divorced or widowed.

Discussion: These findings imply well-educated spouses play a crucial role in slowing biological aging, underscoring the value of leveraging spousal education as an asset in managing later-life health and addressing age-related health disparities.

Background: Part-list cuing impairment is the counterintuitive finding that presenting a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can impair memory for the remaining items. This study examined the temporal persistence of part-list cuing impairment in younger and older adults.

Methods: Younger and older adults studied item lists under two encoding conditions: a single study trial versus two study-test cycles, the latter assumed to induce more associative encoding than the former. Participants then completed a critical test with part-list cues to assess the initial effect, followed by a final uncued test to assess the persistence of part-list cuing impairment.

Results: Part-list cuing impairment was lasting when items were encoded through a single study trial, but transient when items were encoded through two study-test cycles. This encoding-dependent dissociation was observed equally in younger and older adults.

Conclusions: The present findings provide evidence for two distinct, age-invariant mechanisms underlying part-list cuing impairment in younger and older adults: lasting retrieval inhibition in low associative encoding conditions, and transient strategy disruption in higher associative encoding conditions.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the basal ganglia that affects approximately 1.5% of adults over the age of 65. Exercise and physical activity are known to complement dopamine replacement therapy.

Methods: A total of 90(68.4 ± 9.72 years) patients with mild and moderate PD participated in a randomized cross-over study. This trial tested that YI JING JING(YJJ) training of 6 months is superior to the control group (CG) at improving the cognition, sleep quality and functional mobility in patients with mild and moderate PD.

Results: Group × Time interaction Effect :A significant interaction UPDRS-part III (F = 11.452, p <.001, η² = 0.119), DS(PDSS-2) (F = 14.672, p <.001,η² = 0.147),PDSS-2 Total (F = 24.813, p <.001, η² = 0.226), BBS (Balance) (F = 32.764, p <.001, η² = 0.278), suggests that the exercise intervention (YJJG) led to differential changes compared to the control group across variables. Time effect: Significant changes occurred from pretest to posttest regardless of YJJG UPDRS-part III (F = 18.327, p <.001 η² = 0.177), DS(PDSS-2) (F = 10.836, p = .002 η² = 0.112), PDSS-2 Total (F = 36.152, p <.001 η² = 0.298), BBS (Balance) (F = 42.865, p <.001 η² = 0.335) reflecting general temporal improvements or declines. There were not significant differences(p > .0038, η² <0.05) from pretest to posttest in these 13 variables of CG.

Conclusion: This study showed the efficacy of implementing the YJJ exercise program for 6 months on the sleep quality, motor function and balance in patients with mild to moderate PD.