Abstract
The underlying premise of current theories of cognitive decline with age tend to be primarily cognitive or biological explanations, with relatively few theories adequately integrating both aspects. Though literature has also emphasized the importance of several factors that contribute to cognitive aging including: (a) decline in sensory abilities; (b) the effect of motor speed on paper-pencil measures of cognitive speed; (c) the impact of level of education and physical activity; and (d) molecular biological changes that occur with age, these factors have seldom been implicated into any single theoretical model of cognitive aging. Indeed, such an integrated bio-cognitive model of aging has the potential to provide a more comprehensive understanding of attention, perception, learning, and memory across the lifespan. Thus, the aim of this review was to critically evaluate common theories of age-related cognitive decline and highlight the need for a more comprehensive systems neuroscience approach to cognitive aging.
Highlights
Many theories of cognitive aging have been proposed to account for the declines observed in cognitive performance across the healthy lifespan, where slowing of processing speed is one of the most common markers of cognitive aging (Salthouse, 1996; Ebaid et al, 2017; Brown et al, 2019)
The results showed no association between cerebral microbleeds and cognitive performance, and no significant differences in cognitive performance when considering the presence of cerebral microbleeds (Rabelo et al, 2017)
Cognitive aging research may benefit from utilizing an anxiety screening instrument such as the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS21; Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GADQ-IV; Newman et al, 2002), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS; Hamilton, 1959), or the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond and Snaith, 1983)
Summary
Many theories of cognitive aging have been proposed to account for the declines observed in cognitive performance across the healthy lifespan, where slowing of processing speed is one of the most common markers of cognitive aging (Salthouse, 1996; Ebaid et al, 2017; Brown et al, 2019). Models such as the STAC, HAROLD and the CRUNCH are based on neural compensation in one way or another, and postulate that older adults can perform as well as young adults on cognitive tasks depending on the capacity to recruit additional neural networks, which are often indicated by increased effort i.e., increases in energy/neural activation Another important consideration which opposes the notion that increased activation is indicative of an adaptive brain stems from the Neural Efficiency Hypothesis (Haier et al, 1988) which postulates that more efficient brain functioning is indicated by lower brain activation compared to less intelligent individuals while working on the same cognitive task (predominantly memory tasks). Hypertension is considered a worldwide epidemic and affects ∼1.13 billion adults globally
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