Decision-Making Deficits in Elderly Can Be Alleviated by Attention Training.

Marlen Schmicker,Notger G Müller,Patrick Müller,Lasse Pelzer,David Koch,Inga Menze,Ulrike Rumpf

doi:10.3390/jcm8081131

Abstract

Decision-making is an important everyday function that deteriorates during normal aging. Here, we asked whether value-based decision-making can be improved in the elderly by cognitive training. We compared the effects of two training regimens on the performance in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a real-life decision-making simulation task. Elderly participants (age 62–75 years) were randomized into three matched groups. The filter training (FT) group performed a selective attention task and the memory training (MT) group performed a memory storage task on five consecutive days. The control group (CG) did not perform another task besides the IGT. Only the FT group showed an improvement in IGT performance over the five days—the overall gain rose and the prominent deck B phenomenon decreased. The latter refers to the selection of cards associated with high gains and rare losses, which are nevertheless a disadvantageous choice as the frequent losses lead to a negative net outcome. As the deck B phenomenon has been associated with impaired cognitive abilities in aging, the positive effect of FT here is of special importance. In sum, attention training seems superior in improving decision-making in the elderly.

Highlights

In daily life, we have to make decisions all the time; they involve everyday matters and larger issues
As the deck B phenomenon has been associated with impaired cognitive abilities in aging, the positive effect of filter training (FT) here is of special importance
We demonstrated in an earlier study that FT over five days led to more advantageous decisions of young healthy subjects in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) than learning to store information in WM [16]

Summary

Introduction

We have to make decisions all the time; they involve everyday matters (what to eat or what to wear) and larger issues (what kind of work to do, with whom to live) These decisions define an individual’s identity [1] and require various cognitive resources to assess advantages and disadvantages, risks and long-term gains of the options at hand. Aging is associated with a general cognitive decline and a decline in efficient and advantageous decision-making [2] This is especially devastating as important decisions have to be made by seniors, too, e.g., regarding financial matters, medical care or retirement options. This underlines the need for improvement of decision-making in an aging population. The amount of money gained and the penalty

Methods

Results

Conclusion