Abstract
Normal aging triggers deterioration in cognitive functions. Evidence has shown that these age-related changes concern also executive functions (EF) as well as temporal information processing (TIP) in a millisecond range. A considerable amount of literature data has indicated that each of these two functions sets a frame for our mental activity and may be considered in terms of embodied cognition due to advanced age. The present study addresses the question whether in elderly subjects the efficiency of TIP is related to individual differences in EF. The study involved 53 normal healthy participants aged from 65 to 78. In these subjects TIP was assessed by sequencing abilities measured with temporal-order threshold (TOT). It is defined as the minimum time gap separating two auditory stimuli presented in rapid succession which is necessary for a subject to report correctly their temporal order, thus the relation ‘before-after.’ The EF were assessed with regard to the efficiency of the executive planning measured with the Tower of London-Drexel University (TOLDX) which has become a well-known EF task. Using Spearman’s rank correlations we observed two main results. Firstly, the indices of the TOLDX indicated a coherent construct reflecting the effectiveness of executive planning in the elderly. Initiation time seemed dissociated from these coherent indices, which suggested a specific strategy of mental planning in the elderly based on on-line planning rather than on preplanning. Secondly, TOT was significantly correlated with the indices of TOLDX. Although some of these correlations were modified by subject’s age, the correlation between TOT and the main index of TOLDX (‘Total Move Score’) was rather age resistant. These results suggest that normal aging may be characterized by an overlapping of deteriorated TIP and deteriorated EF.
Highlights
In recent decades societies worldwide have been facing demographic changes
Given the importance of temporal information processing (TIP) for our cognitive functions, the present paper focuses on the relationships between deteriorated TIP and deteriorated executive functions (EF) in advanced age
With regard to the relationships between the performance on Tower of London-Drexel University (TOLDX) and TOJ tasks, we have found that better performance on TOJ was associated with better performance on TOLDX (Figures 5 and 6; Table 4) subjects characterized by lower temporal-order threshold (TOT) made fewer redundant moves on TOLDX and solved more problems correctly
Summary
In recent decades societies worldwide have been facing demographic changes. A growing number of people aged 60 and older in most European countries and in the US has led to a rapid growth of research studies on cognitive functions in the elderly. The accumulated data have indicated age-related deterioration in temporal information processing (TIP, e.g., Fitzgibbons and Gordon-Salant, 1994; Kumar and Sangamanatha, 2011; Turgeon et al, 2016). These literature data have been supported by the results of studies conducted in our laboratory (Kolodziejczyk and Szelag, 2008; Szymaszek et al, 2009). Given the importance of TIP for our cognitive functions, the present paper focuses on the relationships between deteriorated TIP and deteriorated EF in advanced age. These relationships seem to be of great importance to understand the mechanisms of normal cognitive aging in terms of embodied cognition (Borghi and Cimatti, 2010)
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