Abstract
People may differ in their ways of processing tasks or situations, which may be explained by cognitive styles that define individual differences in information processing strategies. The cognitive style ranges between two extremes: analytic and holistic processing style. The concept of cognitive style has been widely investigated in the literature, but its age-related differences in the neural substrates have remained elusive. In this study, we focused on the white matter structure of the corpus callosum and its possible link to age-related differences in cognitive style, given its functional ability to connect and facilitate efficient communication between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Seventy-two participants aged 20–75 years participated in this study. Participants’ cognitive styles were measured by the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS), and their white matter microstructures were acquired using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. The results revealed that older adults tend to have a more holistic processing style than younger adults. We then compared the white matter of tracts of interest between high and low AHS groups and found that the white matter microstructure in the genu of the corpus callosum can be used to distinguish between AHS subgroups. Interestingly, we found that age negatively correlated with the white matter tracts across the brain, indicating that aging is associated with reduced microstructure integrity. Together, our findings suggest that analytic-holistic cognitive styles of information processing possibly reflect that the microstructure development in the anterior part of the corpus callosum may influence the type of age-related information processing.
Highlights
Cognitive Style and Its ConstructsCognitive style refers to an individual’s attitudes, preferences, or strategies for acquiring and processing information, which involves particular cognitive functions such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, and problem-solving (Messick, 1984; Kozhevnikov, 2007; Mealor et al, 2016)
We focused on the communication of the corpus callosum reflected in forceps minor (Fmin) and forceps major (Fmaj) in the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, in which Fmin represents the genu while Fmaj represents the splenium of the corpus callosum
The results showed that the major differences between the high and low-Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) subgroups in fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) are in the Fmin tract (Figure 11), highlighting the role of the genu of the corpus callosum in the analytic-holistic cognitive style
Summary
Cognitive style refers to an individual’s attitudes, preferences, or strategies for acquiring and processing information, which involves particular cognitive functions such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, and problem-solving (Messick, 1984; Kozhevnikov, 2007; Mealor et al, 2016). The two contrasting cognitive style constructs suggested by Miller (1987) have been linked to the distinction between ways of thinking based on the left and right hemispheres (Leonard and Straus, 1997) This linkage is based on the assumption that each hemisphere has different cognitive functions when processing information (Prevedi and Carli, 1987; Riding et al, 1993; Gazzaniga, 2005; Schulte and Müller-Oehring, 2010; Hinkley et al, 2012). Müller-Oehring et al (2007) further suggest that the functions of the corpus callosum might involve both inhibition and cooperation depending on the part of the corpus callosum (the genu vs the splenium) They designed a global-local hierarchical letter paradigm (e.g., a global letter of ‘‘F’’ made out of local letters of ‘‘E’’s) to test the hypothesis that aging reduces functional hemispheric lateralization through the degradation of the corpus callosum. Additional studies using a global-local stimulus have found that local processing declines with age, whereas global processing is preserved with age (Roux and Ceccaldi, 2001; Meng et al, 2019)
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