Age-related Cognitive Differences Research Articles

38 Real-World Goal Setting and Follow Through in Young and Older Adults

Objective:The ability to generate, plan for, and follow through with goals is essential to everyday functioning. Compared to young adults, cognitively normal older adults have more difficulty on a variety of cognitive functions that contribute to goal setting and follow through. However, how these age-related cognitive differences impact real-world goal planning and success remains unclear. In the current study, we aimed to better understand the impact of older age on everyday goal planning and success.Participants and Methods:Cognitively normal young adults (18-35 years, n= 57) and older adults (60-80 years, n= 49) participated in a 10-day 2-session study. In the first session, participants described 4 real-world goals that they hoped to pursue in the next 10 days. These goals were subjectively rated for personal significance, significance to others, and vividness, and goal descriptions were objectively scored for temporal, spatial, and event specificity, among other measures. Ten days later, participants rated the degree to which they planned for and made progress in their real-world goals since session one. Older adults also completed a battery of neuropsychological tests.Results:Some key results are as follows. Relative to the young adults, cognitively normal older adults described real-world goals which navigated smaller spaces (p=0.01) and that they perceived as more important to other people (p=0.03). Older adults also planned more during the 10-day window (p<0.001). There was not a statistically significant age group difference, however, in real-world goal progress (p=0.65). Nonetheless, among older participants, goal progress was related to higher mental processing speed as shown by the Trail Making Test Part A (r=0.36, p=0.02) and the creation of goals confined to specific temporal periods (r=0.35, p=0.01). Older participants who scored lower on the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) long delay recall trial reported that their goals were more like ones that they had set in the past (r= -0.34, p=0.02), and higher episodic memory as shown by the RCFT was associated with more spatially specific goals (r=0.32, p=0.02), as well as a greater use of implementation intentions in goal descriptions(r=0.35, p=0.02).Conclusions:Although older adults tend to show decline in several cognitive domains relevant to goal setting, we found that cognitively normal older adults did not make significantly less progress toward a series of real-world goals over a 10-day window. However, relative to young adults, older adults tended to pursue goals which were more important to others, as well as goals that involved navigating smaller spaces. Older adults also appear to rely on planning more than young adults to make progress toward their goals. These findings reveal age group differences in the quality of goals and individual differences in goal success among older adults. They are also in line with prior research suggesting that cognitive aging effects may be more subtle in real-world contexts.

Education differentiates cognitive performance and resting state fMRI connectivity in healthy aging.

In healthy aging, the way people cope differently with cognitive and neural decline is influenced by exposure to cognitively enriching life-experiences. Education is one of them, so that in general, the higher the education, the better the expected cognitive performance in aging. At the neural level, it is not clear yet how education can differentiate resting state functional connectivity profiles and their cognitive underpinnings. Thus, with this study, we aimed to investigate whether the variable education allowed for a finer description of age-related differences in cognition and resting state FC. We analyzed in 197 healthy individuals (137 young adults aged 20-35 and 60 older adults aged 55-80 from the publicly available LEMON database), a pool of cognitive and neural variables, derived from magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to education. Firstly, we assessed age-related differences, by comparing young and older adults. Then, we investigated the possible role of education in outlining such differences, by splitting the group of older adults based on their education. In terms of cognitive performance, older adults with higher education and young adults were comparable in language and executive functions. Interestingly, they had a wider vocabulary compared to young adults and older adults with lower education. Concerning functional connectivity, the results showed significant age- and education-related differences within three networks: the Visual-Medial, the Dorsal Attentional, and the Default Mode network (DMN). For the DMN, we also found a relationship with memory performance, which strengthen the evidence that this network has a specific role in linking cognitive maintenance and FC at rest in healthy aging. Our study revealed that education contributes to differentiating cognitive and neural profiles in healthy older adults. Also, the DMN could be a key network in this context, as it may reflect some compensatory mechanisms relative to memory capacities in older adults with higher education.

Age differences in cortical thickness and their association with cognition in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Humans and chimpanzees are genetically similar and share a number of life history, behavioral, cognitive and neuroanatomical similarities. Notwithstanding, our understanding of age-related changes in cognitive and motor functions in chimpanzees remains largely unstudied despite recent evident demonstrating that chimpanzees exhibit many of the same neuropathological features of Alzheimer's disease observed in human postmortem brains. Here, we examined age-related differences in cognition and cortical thickness measured from magnetic resonance images in a sample of 215 chimpanzees ranging in age between 9 and 54 years. We found that chimpanzees showed global and region-specific thinning of cortex with increasing age. Further, within the elderly cohort, chimpanzees that performed better than average had thicker cortex in frontal, temporal and parietal regions compared to chimpanzees that performed worse than average. Independent of age, we also found sex differences in cortical thickness in 4 brain regions. Males had higher adjusted cortical thickness scores for the caudal anterior cingulate, rostral anterior cingulate, and medial orbital frontal while females had higher values for the inferior parietal cortex. We found no evidence that increasing age nor sex was associated with asymmetries in cortical thickness. Moreover, age-related differences in cognitive function were only weakly associated with asymmetries in cortical thickness. In summary, as has been reported in humans and other primates, elderly chimpanzees show thinner cortex and variation in cortical thickness is associated with general cognitive functions.

Resting EEG spectral slopes are associated with age-related differences in information processing speed

BackgroundPrevious research has shown the slope of the EEG power spectrum differentiates between older and younger adults in various experimental cognitive tasks. We extend that work, assessing the relation between the EEG power spectrum and performance on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). MethodsTwenty-one younger and twenty-three older adults completed the RBANS with EEG data collected at rest. Using spectral parameterization, we tested the mediating effect of the spectral slope on differences in subsequent cognitive task performance. ResultsOlder adults performed reliably worse on the RBANS overall, and on the Attention and Delayed Memory domains specifically. However, evidence of mediation was only found for the Coding subtest. ConclusionsThe slope of the resting EEG power spectrum mediated age-related differences in cognition, but only in a task requiring speeded processing. Mediation was not statistically significant for delayed memory, even though age-related differences were present.

Age-related differences in cognition and postoperative quality of recovery after beach chair position shoulder surgery

We examined the influence of age in beach chair position shoulder surgery and postoperative quality of recovery by conducting a single-site, observational, cohort study comparing younger aged (18-40 years) versus older aged (at least 60 years) patients admitted for elective shoulder surgery in the beach chair position. Endpoints were dichotomous return of function to each patient's individual preoperative baseline as assessed using the postoperative quality of recovery scale; measuring cognition, nociception, physiological, emotional, functional activities and overall perspective. We recruited 112 (41 younger and 71 older aged) patients. There was no statistical difference in cognitive recovery at day three postoperatively (primary outcome): 26/32 younger patients (81%) versus 43/60 (72%) older patients, P=0.45. Rates of recovery were age-dependent on domain and time frame (secondary outcomes), with older patients recovering faster in the nociceptive domain (P=0.02), slower in the emotional domain (P=0.02) and not different in the physiological, functional activities and overall perspective domains (all P >0.35). In conclusion, we did not show any statistically significant difference in cognitive outcomes between younger and older patients using our perioperative anaesthesia and analgesia management protocol. Irrespective of age, 70% of patients recovered by three months in all domains.

Age and intranasal oxytocin effects on trust-related decisions after breach of trust: Behavioral and brain evidence.

Age-related differences in cognition and socioemotional functions, and in associated brain regions, may reduce sensitivity to cues of untrustworthiness, with effects on trust-related decision making and trusting behavior. This study examined age-group differences in brain activity and behavior during a trust game. In this game, participants received "breach-of-trust" feedback after half of the trials. The feedback indicated that only 50% of the monetary investment into their fellow players had resulted in returns. The study also explored the effects of intranasal oxytocin on trust-related decisions in aging, based on suggestions of a modulatory role of oxytocin in response to negative social stimuli and perceptions of trust. Forty-seven younger and 46 older participants self-administered intranasal oxytocin or placebo, in a randomized, double-blind, between-subjects procedure, before they engaged in the trust game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Younger participants invested less into their game partners after breach-of-trust feedback, while older participants showed no significant difference in their investment after breach-of-trust feedback. Oxytocin did not modulate the behavioral effects. However, after breach-of-trust feedback, older participants in the oxytocin group showed less activity in the left superior temporal gyrus. In contrast, older participants in the placebo group showed more activity in left superior temporal gyrus after breach of trust. The findings may reflect reduced responsiveness to cues of untrustworthiness in older adults. Furthermore, the modulatory effect of oxytocin on left superior temporal gyrus activity among older adults supports the neuropeptide's age-differential role in neural processes in aging, including in the context of trust-related decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Reversal learning in young and middle-age neurotypicals: Individual difference reaction time considerations

ABSTRACT Reversal learning is frequently used to assess components of executive function that contribute to understanding age-related cognitive differences. Reaction time (RT) is less characterized in the reversal learning literature, perhaps due to the daunting task of analyzing the entire RT distribution, but has been deemed a generally sensitive measure of cognitive aging. The current study extends our prior work to further characterize distributional properties of the reversal RT distribution and to distinguish groups of individuals with fractionated profiles of performance, which may be of clinical importance within the context of cognitive aging. Participant sample included young (n = 43) and community-dwelling, healthy, middle-aged (n = 139) adults. To explore individual differences, recursive partitioning analysis achieved a high classification rate by specifying decision tree rules that split participants into young and middle-aged groups. Mu (μ, efficient RT) was the most successful parameter in distinguishing age groups while sigma ( and tau (, ex-Gaussian indices of intra-individual variability) revealed more subtle individual differences. Accuracy measures did not contribute to separating the groups, suggesting that fractionated components of RT, as opposed to accuracy, can distinguish differences between young and middle-aged participants.

Physical fitness and age-related differences in cognition and cortical thickness in young adulthood.

The association between physical fitness and age-related differences in cognition and brain structure has been studied fairly extensively during development and aging, yet comparatively less in young adulthood. The current study examined 1,195 young adults aged 22 to 36 (54% female; 67% Caucasian) to better understand associations between physical fitness-grip strength and submaximal cardiovascular endurance-and age-related differences in executive function (EF), memory, and average cortical thickness. EF, memory, and cortical thickness were negatively associated with age, and higher endurance was positively associated with EF and memory. Neither physical fitness measure associated with cortical thinning. To follow-up on these analyses, data from monozygotic (n = 149 pairs) and dizygotic (n = 93 pairs) twins were used to estimate the degree to which heritability versus environment might contribute to the observed associations between cognition and endurance. Environmental effects shared by monozygotic and dizygotic twins alike were estimated to account for roughly 50% of the correlation between endurance and cognition (EF and memory). Heritability and nonshared environmental effects were inconsistent across EF and memory. Overall, these findings suggest an association between cardiovascular endurance and age-related differences in cognition in young adulthood and that these associations may be independent of cortical thinning. Whereas there was consistent evidence for a moderate contribution of the shared environment, there was limited and inconsistent evidence for a role of heritability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Amyloid burden and white matter hyperintensities mediate age-related cognitive differences

This study examined the additive versus synergistic contribution of beta-amyloid (Aβ) and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) across 7 cognitive domains in 104 cognitively normal older adults. It also measured the extent to which age-related differences in cognition are driven by measurable brain pathology. All participants underwent neuropsychological assessment along with magnetic resonance imaging and Pittsburg compound B–positron emission tomography imaging for Aβ quantification. WMH severity was quantified using the age-related white matter changes scale. Stepwise regressions, moderation, and mediation modeling were performed. Our findings show that Aβ deposition single-handedly predicts poorer episodic memory performance and that Aβ and WMHs contribute additively to poorer performance in working memory and language while carrying synergistic associations with executive functions and attention. Through mediation modeling, we demonstrated that the influence of age over episodic memory, working memory, executive functions, and language is fully mediated by brain pathology. This study permits to conclude that, in healthy older adults, (1) Aβ burden and WMHs have synergistic associations with some cognitive domains and (2) age-related differences in most cognitive domains are driven by brain pathology associated with dementia.

White Matter Correlates of Cognitive Performance on the UCSF Brain Health Assessment.

White matter (WM) microstructural changes are increasingly recognized as a mechanism of age-related cognitive differences. This study examined the associations between patterns of WM microstructure and cognitive performance on the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Brain Health Assessment (BHA) subtests of memory (Favorites), executive functions and speed (Match), and visuospatial skills (Line Orientation) within a sample of older adults. Fractional anisotropy (FA) in WM tracts and BHA performance were examined in 84 older adults diagnosed as neurologically healthy (47), with mild cognitive impairment (19), or with dementia (18). The relationships between FA and subtest performances were evaluated using regression analyses. We then explored whether regional WM predicted performance after accounting for variance explained by global FA. Memory performance was associated with FA of the fornix and the superior cerebellar peduncle; and executive functions and speed, with the body of the corpus callosum. The fornix-memory association and the corpus callosum-executive association remained significant after accounting for global FA. Neither tract-based nor global FA was associated with visuospatial performance. Memory and executive functions are associated with different patterns of WM diffusivity. Findings add insight into WM alterations underlying age- and disease-related cognitive decline.

White matter disconnection is related to age-related phonological deficits

Older adults have more language production difficulties than younger adults but display largely comparable language comprehension abilities. The Transmission Deficit Hypothesis suggests that production difficulties stem from an age-related increase in phonological signal transmission failures, while the semantic system, being more redundant than the phonological system, allows comprehension to be relatively preserved despite signal failures. Though the neural instantiation of the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis remains an open question, white matter represents one important factor to investigate. Metrics indicative of white matter connectivity across the brain, namely, Radial Diffusivity (RD) and Fractional Anisotropy (FA) have also been linked to age-related cognitive differences including naming difficulties. Using a Picture-Word Interference (PWI) task with 18 younger and 19 older healthy adults, we found that, across ages, better picture naming in the presence of phonological distractors was associated with lower RD across dorsal (r = −.35, p = .03), ventral (r = −.34, p = .04), and fronto-striatal (r = −.33, p = .04) tracts, and higher FA along dorsal tracts (r = .43, p = .008). The pattern of lower RD and higher FA, which is thought to reflect better white matter structure, points to the dorsal stream tracts as critical for performance on the PWI task. Moreover, the effects of RD and FA on performance were attenuated by the effect of age, reflecting the shared variance between age and white matter as it relates to language production ability.

Patterns of Age-Related Cognitive Differences in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Little is known about age-related cognitive differences in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, given the overlap in cognitive impairments in ASD to those seen in typical aging, it is possible that adults with ASD will face even greater cognitive difficulties as they age. The current study used a cross-sectional design to examine age-related cognitive differences in adults with ASD and age and IQ-matched adults with typical development (age range 30-67 years). Results indicated that both age and diagnosis were related to poorer cognitive performance. However, adults with ASD exhibited pronounced age effects on measures related to executive functioning compared to adults with typical development, suggesting that aging in ASD may disproportionately affect specific cognitive processes.

Evaluating Alzheimer's disease biomarkers as mediators of age-related cognitive decline

Age-related changes in cognition are partially mediated by the presence of neuropathology and neurodegeneration. This manuscript evaluates the degree to which biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, (AD) neuropathology and longitudinal changes in brain structure, account for age-related differences in cognition. Data from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative (n = 1012) were analyzed, including individuals with normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment. Parallel process mixed effects regression models characterized longitudinal trajectories of cognitive variables and time-varying changes in brain volumes. Baseline age was associated with both memory and executive function at baseline (p's < 0.001) and change in memory and executive function performances over time (p's < 0.05). After adjusting for clinical diagnosis, baseline, and longitudinal changes in brain volume, and baseline levels of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, age effects on change in episodic memory and executive function were fully attenuated, age effects on baseline memory were substantially attenuated, but an association remained between age and baseline executive function. Results support previous studies that show that age effects on cognitive decline are fully mediated by disease and neurodegeneration variables but also show domain-specific age effects on baseline cognition, specifically an age pathway to executive function that is independent of brain and disease pathways.

White matter tract covariance patterns predict age-declining cognitive abilities

Previous studies investigating the relationship of white matter (WM) integrity to cognitive abilities and aging have either focused on a global measure or a few selected WM tracts. Ideally, contribution from all of the WM tracts should be evaluated at the same time. However, the high collinearity among WM tracts precludes systematic examination of WM tracts simultaneously without sacrificing statistical power due to stringent multiple-comparison corrections. Multivariate covariance techniques enable comprehensive simultaneous examination of all WM tracts without being penalized for high collinearity among observations. MethodIn this study, Scaled Subprofile Modeling (SSM) was applied to the mean integrity of 18 major WM tracts to extract covariance patterns that optimally predicted four cognitive abilities (perceptual speed, episodic memory, fluid reasoning, and vocabulary) in 346 participants across ages 20 to 79years old. Using expression of the covariance patterns, age-independent effects of white matter integrity on cognition and the indirect effect of WM integrity on age-related differences in cognition were tested separately, but inferences from the indirect analyses were cautiously made given that cross-sectional data set was used in the analysis. ResultsA separate covariance pattern was identified that significantly predicted each cognitive ability after controlling for age except for vocabulary, but the age by WM covariance pattern interaction was not significant for any of the three abilities. Furthermore, each of the patterns mediated the effect of age on the respective cognitive ability. A distinct set of WM tracts was most influential in each of the three patterns. The WM covariance pattern accounting for fluid reasoning showed the most number of influential WM tracts whereas the episodic memory pattern showed the least number. ConclusionSpecific patterns of WM tracts make significant contributions to the age-related differences in perceptual speed, episodic memory, and fluid reasoning but not vocabulary. Other measures of brain health will need to be explored to reveal the major influences on the vocabulary ability.

Age-related differences in cognition across the adult lifespan in autism spectrum disorder.

It is largely unknown how age impacts cognition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We investigated whether age-related cognitive differences are similar, reduced or increased across the adult lifespan, examined cognitive strengths and weaknesses, and explored whether objective test performance is related to subjective cognitive challenges. Neuropsychological tests assessing visual and verbal memory, generativity, and theory of mind (ToM), and a self-report measure assessing cognitive failures were administered to 236 matched participants with and without ASD, aged 20-79 years (IQ > 80). Group comparisons revealed that individuals with ASD had higher scores on visual memory, lower scores on generativity and ToM, and similar performance on verbal memory. However, ToM impairments were no longer present in older (50+ years) adults with ASD. Across adulthood, individuals with ASD demonstrated similar age-related effects on verbal memory, generativity, and ToM, while age-related differences were reduced on visual memory. Although adults with ASD reported many cognitive failures, those were not associated with neuropsychological test performance. Hence, while some cognitive abilities (visual and verbal memory) and difficulties (generativity and semantic memory) persist across adulthood in ASD, others become less apparent in old age (ToM). Age-related differences characteristic of typical aging are reduced or parallel, but not increased in individuals with ASD, suggesting that ASD may partially protect against an age-related decrease in cognitive functioning. Despite these findings, adults with ASD experience many cognitive daily challenges, which highlights the need for adequate social support and the importance of further research into this topic, including longitudinal studies. Autism Res 2016, 9: 666-676. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

"Older is always better": Age-related differences in vocabulary scores across 16 years.

Cross-sectional studies of cognitive aging compare age groups at 1 time point. It is unclear from such studies whether age-related cognitive differences remain stable across time. We present a cross-sectional investigation of vocabulary scores of 2,000 younger and older adults collected across 16 years, using the same laboratory and protocol. We found a steady decrease with year of testing and an advantage for older adults. An additive relation between age group and year of testing implied that age-related differences in vocabulary are independent of changes over time, suggesting that younger and older adults are similarly affected by changes in word usage.

Global versus tract-specific components of cerebral white matter integrity: relation to adult age and perceptual-motor speed.

Although age-related differences in white matter have been well documented, the degree to which regional, tract-specific effects can be distinguished from global, brain-general effects is not yet clear. Similarly, the manner in which global and regional differences in white matter integrity contribute to age-related differences in cognition has not been well established. To address these issues, we analyzed diffusion tensor imaging measures from 52 younger adults (18-28) and 64 older adults (60-85). We conducted principal component analysis on each diffusion measure, using data from eight individual tracts. Two components were observed for fractional anisotropy: the first comprised high loadings from the superior longitudinal fasciculi and corticospinal tracts, and the second comprised high loadings from the optic radiations. In contrast, variation in axial, radial, and mean diffusivities yielded a single-component solution in each case, with high loadings from most or all tracts. For fractional anisotropy, the complementary results of multiple components and variability in component loadings across tracts suggest regional variation. However, for the diffusivity indices, the single component with high loadings from most or all of the tracts suggests primarily global, brain-general variation. Further analyses indicated that age was a significant mediator of the relation between each component and perceptual-motor speed. These data suggest that individual differences in white matter integrity and their relation to age-related differences in perceptual-motor speed represent influences that are beyond the level of individual tracts, but the extent to which regional or global effects predominate may differ between anisotropy and diffusivity measures.

Examining cognitive function across the lifespan using a mobile application

Many studies conducted in a laboratory or university setting are limited by funding, personnel, space, and time constraints. In the present study, we introduce a method of data collection using a mobile application that circumvents these typical experiment administration issues. Using the application, we examined cross-sectional age differences in cognitive function. We obtained data from more than 15,000 participants and replicated specific patterns of age-related differences in cognition. Using a subset of these participants, we also examined the processing speed account of age-related cognitive differences, and the association of exercise and leisure activity with cognitive function across the lifespan. We discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of data collection with a mobile application, and provide recommendations for the use of this method in research.

Cerebral White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Aging: Contributions from Diffusion Tensor Imaging

The integrity of cerebral white matter is critical for efficient cognitive functioning, but little is known regarding the role of white matter integrity in age-related differences in cognition. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures the directional displacement of molecular water and as a result can characterize the properties of white matter that combine to restrict diffusivity in a spatially coherent manner. This review considers DTI studies of aging and their implications for understanding adult age differences in cognitive performance. Decline in white matter integrity contributes to a disconnection among distributed neural systems, with a consistent effect on perceptual speed and executive functioning. The relation between white matter integrity and cognition varies across brain regions, with some evidence suggesting that age-related effects exhibit an anterior-posterior gradient. With continued improvements in spatial resolution and integration with functional brain imaging, DTI holds considerable promise, both for theories of cognitive aging and for translational application.

Aging, vascular risk, and cognition: Blood glucose, pulse pressure, and cognitive performance in healthy adults.

Advanced age is associated with decline in many areas of cognition as well as increased frequency of vascular disease. Well-described risk factors for vascular disease, such as diabetes and arterial hypertension, have been linked to cognitive deficits beyond those associated with aging. To examine whether vascular health indices such as fasting blood glucose levels and arterial pulse pressure can predict subtle deficits in age-sensitive abilities, the authors studied 104 healthy adults (ages 18 to 78) without diagnoses of diabetes or hypertension. Whereas results revealed a classic pattern of age-related differences in cognition, preprandial blood glucose level and pulse pressure independently and differentially affected cognitive performance. High-normal blood glucose levels were associated with decreased delayed associative memory, reduced accuracy of working memory processing among women, and slower working memory processing among men. Elevated pulse pressure was associated with slower perceptual-motor processing. Results suggest that blood glucose levels and pulse pressure may be sensitive indicators of cognitive status in healthy adults; however, longitudinal research is needed to determine whether such relatively mild elevations in this select group predict age-related cognitive declines.