Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition最新文献

Age differences in cognitive performance have been shown to be overestimated if age-related hearing loss is not taken into account. Here, we investigated the role of age-related hearing loss on age differences in functional brain organization by assessing its impact on previously reported age differences in neural differentiation. To this end, we analyzed the data of 36 younger adults, 21 older adults with clinically normal hearing, and 21 older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss who had taken part in a functional localizer task comprising visual (i.e., faces, scenes) and auditory stimuli (i.e., voices, music) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Evidence for reduced neural distinctiveness in the auditory cortex was observed only in older adults with hearing loss relative to younger adults, whereas evidence for reduced neural distinctiveness in the visual cortex was observed both in older adults with normal hearing and in older adults with hearing loss relative to younger adults. These results indicate that age-related dedifferentiation in the auditory cortex is exacerbated by age-related hearing loss.

Concrete planning for future care needs may positively impact older adults' subsequent mental health and quality of life. However, the cognitive factors that facilitate concrete planning among Black and White older adults are still poorly understood. We investigated whether there are significant differences between Black (n = 159) and White (n = 262) older adults in concrete planning and explored racial differences in the relationship between verbal and nonverbal episodic memory and concrete planning. Results revealed that Blacks showed lower engagement in concrete planning and lower scores than Whites on each verbal and nonverbal memory task. For Blacks, but not Whites, verbal memory and nonverbal memory performance predicted concrete planning with higher nonverbal memory relating to less concrete planning and higher verbal memory associated with more concrete planning. Our findings suggest racial differences exist in how episodic verbal and nonverbal memory affect concrete planning, a crucial factor for older adults' preparation for future care.

Depression and social isolation increase risk for executive function declines and are among the top five modifiable risk factors for dementia. However, the interrelationships between depression, social isolation and executive function are not well established. Further evidence is needed to inform strategies to promote executive function and independence in older age. We examined whether social isolation mediated the association between depression and executive function in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults and whether this association was modified by age and sex. Adults aged 45 to 85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Comprehensive cohort were followed over three years (complete case analysis, n = 14,133). Baseline depressive symptoms, a history of clinical depression, and functional social isolation (perceived lack of social support) were self-reported. Executive function at follow-up was a composite measure of five cognitive tests. Conditional process analysis assessed the mediating effects of functional social isolation across age group and sex, adjusted for sociodemographic and health covariates. Functional social isolation significantly mediated the association of depressive symptoms (proportion mediated [P_M] = 8.0%) or clinical depression (P_M = 17.5%) with executive function only among women aged 75+ years. Functional social isolation explains a proportion of the total effect of depressive symptoms or clinical depression on executive function in women aged 75 and older. Although reverse causation cannot be ruled out, our findings suggest that interventions that reduce functional social isolation or depression in older women may promote executive function.

Assessment of cognitive impairments is a vital part of clinical practice. Cancellation (visual search) and line bisection are commonly used tasks to assess visuospatial attention. Despite the fact visuospatial attention is engaged in both near (within reach) and far-space (out of reach), most studies have been conducted in near-space alone. Moreover, despite their use in clinical practice, it is unclear whether cancellation and bisection tasks are related. Here, we investigated the impact of aging on cancellation and line bisection performance in far-space in a large healthy sample. We provide preliminary age-graded norms for assessing visuospatial attention in far-space calculated from a sample of 179 healthy adults, between the ages of 18-94 (mean age = 49.29). Cancellation and line bisection were presented on a large screen in far-space and completed using a wireless remote. Aging was accompanied by longer task duration for both tasks, slower search speed and poorer quality of search. However, there was no significant effect of aging on line bisection error. There was a significant correlation between the two tasks in that longer task duration in line bisection was associated with slower search speed and poorer quality of search. Overall, participants presented a leftward bias during cancellation and line bisection akin to pseudoneglect. Moreover, we found that irrespective of age, search speed was faster in males than females. We offer novel evidence that performance on cancellation and line bisection tasks are related to one another in far-space, but are also sensitive to age-related decline, and even sex differences.

While often showing associative memory deficits, there may be instances when older adults selectively remember important associative information. We presented younger and older adults with children they would be hypothetically babysitting, and each child had three preferences: a food they like, a food they dislike, and a food they are allergic to and must avoid. In Experiment 1, all foods associated with each child were simultaneously presented while in Experiments 2 and 3, participants self-regulated their study of the different preferences for each child. We were interested in whether people, particularly older adults who often display associative memory impairments, can prioritize the most important information with consequences for forgetting (i.e., allergies), especially with increased task experience. Overall, compared with younger adults, older adults were better at selectively studying and recalling the children's allergies relative to the other preferences, and these patterns increased with task experience. Together, the present results suggest that both younger and older adults can employ strategies that enhance the recall of important information, illustrating responsible remembering. Specifically, both younger and older adults can learn to self-assess and prioritize the information that they need to remember, and despite memory deficits, older adults can learn to employ strategies that enhance the recall of important information, using metacognition and goal-directed remembering to engage in responsible remembering.

Dementia affects multiple aspects of cognitive functioning, including working memory and executive functioning. Memory self-efficacy (MSE) has previously been related to episodic memory performance and to executive functioning, but little research has examined the relations between MSE and working memory. United States older adults (N  = 197) were recruited via MTurk to complete an MSE questionnaire before completing a digit span working memory task. Hierarchical regression results revealed that the model accounted for a significant amount of variance in working memory performance after statistically controlling for several covariates, F(11, 179) = 4.94, p < .001, adjusted R² = .19. MSE explained a large and unique portion of variance (B = 1.02, SE = 0.17, p < .001). Based on our findings, one's beliefs about their memory are positively associated with their working memory performance. These novel findings provide support for neuropsychologists to consider using MSE measures and utilizing MSE interventions.

Objectives: As individuals age, cognitive abilities such as working memory (WM), decline. In the current study, we investigated the effect of age on WM, and elucidated sources of errors.

Method: A total of 102 healthy individuals, aged 18 to 71, participated in this research. We designed and administered a face-based visual WM task, collecting responses via a graded scale in a delayed match-to-sample reproduction task.

Results: The error of participants increased significantly as they aged. Our analysis revealed a significant age-related rise in the standard deviation of error distribution. However, there was no significant change in uniform probability with age.

Conclusion: We found that WM performance declines through the lifespan. Investigating the sources of error, we found that the precision of WM decreased monotonously with age. The results also indicated that the probability of guessing the response as a measure of random response is not affected by age.

A limited number of studies examine cognitive aging in Black or African American older adults. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between health-related fitness metrics, education, and cognition at baseline and over a 4-year follow-up in a sample of 321 Black or African American older adults in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Physical fitness was assessed with measures of gait speed, peak expiratory flow, grip strength, and body mass index. Global cognition was assessed with an adapted version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS). Analyses of relative importance and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine baseline cross-sectional relationships. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine prospective relationships with longitudinal cognitive status. Education was the strongest predictor of global cognition at baseline and follow-up. More years of education significantly increased the odds of maintaining cognitive status at 4-year follow-up. After accounting for education, gait speed was independently associated with baseline cognitive performance and accounted for additional variance. Grip strength, peak expiratory flow, and body mass index were not significantly associated with cognition. The results indicated that modifiable variables, including years of educational attainment and gait speed, were more strongly associated with global cognition than other modifiable variables including body mass index, grip strength, and peak expiratory flow. The lack of observed associations between other fitness variables and cognition may be attributable to the brief assessment methods implemented, which was necessitated by the large-scale, epidemiological approach of the HRS.

We investigated age-related differences in serial and strategic processing during the encoding and retrieval of high-value words. Younger and older adults were presented with word triads positioned left, center, and right, with one word being more valuable than the others. In Experiment 1, younger adults more effectively recalled the middle, high-value word, demonstrating enhanced strategic memory. Younger adults were more likely to initiate recall with a high-value word whereas older adults were equally likely to initiate recall with a left and high-value word. Additionally, older adults were more likely to recall words in their presented order while younger adults strategically recalled successive high-value words. However, both age groups demonstrated strategic processing in Experiments 2 and 3, even without prior knowledge of the high-value word's location. Thus, serial and strategic processing may differ based on age and task demands, but strategic processing is preserved in older adults in certain contexts.

This study examined age differences in effort devoted to completing cognitively demanding tasks. Fifty-two younger adults ages 18-30 years (M_age = 21.19) and 57 older adults ages 61-93 years (M_age = 76.56) completed a series of memory tests. Following each test, participants rated the test's difficulty and had their blood pressure measured. Effort was indexed by systolic blood pressure response (SBP-R) with greater increases in SBP-R reflecting more effort. Multilevel modeling was used to examine age differences in the intraindividual association between trial-level subjective task difficulty and trial-level effort. Results showed that increases in task difficulty were significantly related to decreases in SBP-R for the older but not younger adults, suggesting the older adults disengaged from the tests they perceived as highly difficult. Findings support Selective Engagement Theory (Hess, 2014), which suggests the perceived cognitive costs of completing difficult tasks may reduce older adults' motivation to engage in the tasks.