Individual Differences In Cognitive Performance Research Articles

"Longitudinal socioemotional pathways between retrospective early life maternal relationship quality and episodic memory in older adulthood": Correction to Sharifian et al. (2019).

Reports a correction to "Longitudinal socioemotional pathways between retrospective early life maternal relationship quality and episodic memory in older adulthood" by Neika Sharifian, A. Zarina Kraal, Afsara B. Zaheed, Ketlyne Sol and Laura B. Zahodne (Developmental Psychology, 2019[Nov], Vol 55[11], 2464-2473). In the article "Longitudinal Socioemotional Pathways Between Retrospective Early Life Maternal Relationship Quality and Episodic Memory in Older Adulthood," by Neika Sharifian, A. Zarina Kraal, Afsara B. Zaheed, Ketlyne Sol, and Laura B. Zahodne (Developmental Psychology, 2019, Vol. 55, No. 11, 2464-2473. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000805), the covariate, respondent's maternal education, was miscoded in the original analyses as spouse's mother's education. Correction of this covariate did not change any of the findings of the original analyses. Corrections regarding the means, standard deviations, attrition and standardized coefficients are noted in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-48985-001.) Prior research suggests that social relations may play a role in explaining individual differences in cognitive functioning in older adulthood. In particular, early life maternal relationship quality (MRQ) has been shown to be a strong predictor of later-life socioemotional outcomes and may also contribute to later-life cognitive outcomes. The current study aimed to examine longitudinal associations between retrospective early life MRQ and later-life episodic memory directly and indirectly through socioemotional pathways. Three waves of data spanning 6 years of the Health and Retirement Study were used (T1: 2008, T2: 2012, T3: 2014; n = 5,263, Mage = 69.31, SD = 10.75 at T1). A longitudinal mediation model tested the direct and indirect effects of retrospectively reported MRQ at T1 on T2 memory and latent change in memory from T2 to T3 through depressive symptoms, social network size, and loneliness at T2. Analyses revealed that better MRQ at T1 was associated with less loneliness and fewer depressive symptoms at T2, and in turn, each was independently associated with less decline in memory from T2 to T3. Overall, findings suggest an enduring effect of early life social experiences on later-life cognitive functioning through socioemotional pathways. These findings further highlight the necessity of taking an integrative and life course perspective when examining the relationship between social relations and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Heart and Brain Interaction of Psychiatric Illness: A Review Focused on Heart Rate Variability, Cognitive Function, and Quantitative Electroencephalography

Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects beat-to-beat variability in the heart rate due to the dynamic interplay of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. HRV is considered an index of the functional status of the autonomic nervous system. A decrease in HRV is thus observed in individuals with autonomic dysfunction. Abnormal HRV has been reported in a range of mental disorders. In this review, we give an overview of HRV in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of whose core symptoms is cognitive dysfunction. The association between HRV and cognitive function is highlighted in this review. This review consists of three main sections. In the first section, we examine how HRV in patients with MDD, schizophrenia, and PTSD is characterized, and how it is different when compared to that in healthy controls. In the second section, beyond the heart itself, we discuss the intimate connection between the heart and the brain, focusing on how HRV interacts with quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) in the context of physiological changes in the sleep cycle. Lastly, we finish the review with the examination of the association between HRV and cognitive function. The overall findings indicate that the reduction in HRV is one of main manifestations in MDD, schizophrenia, and PTSD, and also more generally HRV is closely linked to the change in qEEG and also to individual differences in cognitive performance.

MULTI-OMICS ANALYSIS IDENTIFIES GENE NETWORKS ASSOCIATED WITH COGNITIVE AGING AND ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of age-related dementia, yet no treatment exists. AD is heterogeneous, and is resultant of the dysregulation of many genetic and biological processes. To decipher this complexity, we leveraged the first translational mouse population of AD to identify 15 gene networks related to individual differences in cognitive outcomes. Using QTL mapping, we also identified a novel putative driver of a module, Gstk1, highly conserved in humans that also significantly correlated with memory outcomes. Together, these transcriptional networks provide new mechanistic insight into the biological processes that regulate individual differences in cognitive function across a genetically diverse population. We could identify how demographics (age, sex, causal AD mutations) influence these modules and how they relate to cognitive outcomes. Finally, the high degree of conservation between our mouse modules to human modules reflects the translatability of our model to human AD, adding to its face validity.

Longitudinal socioemotional pathways between retrospective early life maternal relationship quality and episodic memory in older adulthood.

Prior research suggests that social relations may play a role in explaining individual differences in cognitive functioning in older adulthood. In particular, early life maternal relationship quality (MRQ) has been shown to be a strong predictor of later-life socioemotional outcomes and may also contribute to later-life cognitive outcomes. The current study aimed to examine longitudinal associations between retrospective early life MRQ and later-life episodic memory directly and indirectly through socioemotional pathways. Three waves of data spanning 6 years of the Health and Retirement Study were used (T1: 2008, T2: 2012, T3: 2014; n = 5,263, Mage = 69.31, SD = 10.75 at T1). A longitudinal mediation model tested the direct and indirect effects of retrospectively reported MRQ at T1 on T2 memory and latent change in memory from T2 to T3 through depressive symptoms, social network size, and loneliness at T2. Analyses revealed that better MRQ at T1 was associated with less loneliness and fewer depressive symptoms at T2, and in turn, each was independently associated with less decline in memory from T2 to T3. Overall, findings suggest an enduring effect of early life social experiences on later-life cognitive functioning through socioemotional pathways. These findings further highlight the necessity of taking an integrative and life course perspective when examining the relationship between social relations and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Bidirectional in Bilingual: Cognitive, Social and Linguistic Effects of and on Third-Age Language Learning.

Bilingualism has been put forward as a life experience that, similar to musical training or being physically active, may boost cognitive performance and slow down age-related cognitive decline. In more recent years, bilingualism has come to be acknowledged not as a trait but as a highly individual experience where the context of use strongly modulates any cognitive effect that ensues from it (cf. van den Noort et al., 2019). In addition, modulating factors have been shown to interact in intricate ways (Pot, Keijzer and de Bot, 2018). Adding to the complexity is the fact that control processes linked to bilingualism are bidirectional—just as language control can influence cognitive control, individual differences in cognitive functioning often predict language learning outcomes and control. Indeed, Hartsuiker (2015) posited the need for a better understanding of cognitive control, language control as well as the transfer process between them. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the bidirectional and individual cognitive, social and linguistic factors in relation to bilingualism and second language learning, with a special focus on older adulthood: (1) we first show the intricate clustering of modulating individual factors as deterministic of cognitive outcomes of bilingual experiences at the older end of the lifespan; (2) we then present a meta-study of work in the emergent field of third-age language learning, the results of which are related to lifelong bilingualism; (3) objectives (1) and (2) are then combined to result in a blueprint for future work relating cognitive and social individual differences to bilingual linguistic outcomes and vice versa in the context of third-age language learning.

Unpredictable environments enhance inhibitory control in pheasants

The ability to control impulsive actions is an important executive function that is central to the self-regulation of behaviours and, in humans, can have important implications for mental and physical health. One key factor that promotes individual differences in inhibitory control (IC) is the predictability of environmental information experienced during development (i.e. reliability of resources and social trust). However, environmental predictability can also influence motivational and other cognitive abilities, which may therefore confound interpretations of the mechanisms underlying IC. We investigated the role of environmental predictability, food motivation and cognition on IC. We reared pheasant chicks, Phasianus colchicus, under standardised conditions, in which birds experienced environments that differed in their spatial predictability. We systematically manipulated spatial predictability during their first 8 weeks of life, by either moving partitions daily to random locations (unpredictable environment) or leaving them in fixed locations (predictable environment). We assessed motivation by presenting pheasants with two different foraging tasks that measured their dietary breadth and persistence to acquire inaccessible food rewards, as well as recording their latencies to acquire a freely available baseline worm positioned adjacent to each test apparatus, their body condition (mass/tarsus3) and sex. We assessed cognitive performance by presenting each bird with an 80-trial binary colour discrimination task. IC was assessed using a transparent detour apparatus, which required subjects to inhibit prepotent attempts to directly acquire a visible reward through the barrier and instead detour around a barrier. We found greater capacities for IC in pheasants that were reared in spatially unpredictable environments compared to those reared in predictable environments. While IC was unrelated to individual differences in cognitive performance on the colour discrimination task or motivational measures, we found that environmental predictability had differential effects on sex. Males reared in an unpredictable environment, and all females regardless of their rearing environment, were less persistent than males reared in a predictable environment. Our findings, therefore, suggest that an individual’s developmental experience can influence their performance on IC tasks.

Regulation of intrinsic excitability: Roles for learning and memory, aging and Alzheimer's disease, and genetic diversity.

Plasticity of intrinsic neuronal excitability facilitates learning and memory across multiple species, with aberrant modulation of this process being linked to the development of neurological symptoms in models of cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease. Learning-related increases in intrinsic excitability of neurons occurs in a variety of brain regions, and is generally thought to promote information processing and storage through enhancement of synaptic throughput and induction of synaptic plasticity. Experience-dependent changes in intrinsic neuronal excitability rely on activity-dependent gene expression patterns, which can be influenced by genetic and environmental factors, aging, and disease. Reductions in baseline intrinsic excitability, as well as aberrant plasticity of intrinsic neuronal excitability and in some cases pathological hyperexcitability, have been associated with cognitive deficits in animal models of both normal cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease. Genetic factors that modulate plasticity of intrinsic excitability likely underlie individual differences in cognitive function and susceptibility to cognitive decline. Thus, targeting molecular mediators that either control baseline intrinsic neuronal excitability, subserve learning-related intrinsic neuronal plasticity, and/or promote resilience may be a promising therapeutic strategy for maintaining cognitive function in aging and disease. In this review, we discuss the complementary relationship between intrinsic excitability and learning, with a particular focus on how this relationship varies as a function of age, disease state, and genetic make-up, and how targeting these factors may help to further elucidate our understanding of the role of intrinsic excitability in cognitive function and cognitive decline.

Prediction of neurocognition in youth from resting state fMRI.

Difficulties with higher-order cognitive functions in youth are a potentially important vulnerability factor for the emergence of problematic behaviors and a range of psychopathologies. This study examined 2013 9-10 year olds in the first data release from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development 21-site consortium study in order to identify resting state functional connectivity patterns that predict individual-differences in three domains of higher-order cognitive functions: General Ability, Speed/Flexibility, and Learning/Memory. For General Ability scores in particular, we observed consistent cross-site generalizability, with statistically significant predictions in 14 out of 15 held-out sites. These results survived several tests for robustness including replication in split-half analysis and in a low head motion subsample. We additionally found that connectivity patterns involving task control networks and default mode network were prominently implicated in predicting differences in General Ability across participants. These findings demonstrate that resting state connectivity can be leveraged to produce generalizable markers of neurocognitive functioning. Additionally, they highlight the importance of task control-default mode network interconnections as a major locus of individual differences in cognitive functioning in early adolescence.

At the Heart of Cognitive Functioning in Aging

Several neural and non-neural factors contribute to individual differences in cognitive performance. Here we outline a sequence of vascular events where excessive transfer of arterial-pressure pulsatility damages hippocampal capillaries. We argue that the vascular alterations decrease the ability to sustain neural activity and thereby contribute to episodic-memory impairment in aging.

Search Behavior in Goat (Capra hircus) Kids From Mothers Kept at Different Animal Densities Throughout Pregnancy.

Individual differences in cognitive performance are often reported but factors related to variation within species are rarely addressed. Goats (Capra hircus) have been subjects of many cognitive studies recently but without focus on individual variation. Among others, factors such as prenatal stress and sex of the individual have been proposed as possible explanations for individual variation in cognitive skills. We aimed to study whether prenatal environment, prenatal stress, litter size, sex, and birth weight influences search behavior skills of goat kids. Pregnant Norwegian dairy goats were exposed to different spatial allowance (namely 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 m2 per animal) within the commercially applied range during pregnancy and their serum cortisol levels were measured six times within this period. Twenty-six of the kids born entered a three-stage searching task with increasing difficulty when they were 6 weeks old. The tasks included finding a bucket of milk: while moving (stage 1), after moving and disappearing behind a curtain (stage 2), and moving behind a displacement device and the device moving behind a curtain while hiding the bucket (stage 3). We found that prenatal animal density had no effect on the search skills of the offspring, while kids with higher prenatal maternal cortisol levels performed better at the highest stage tested: finding an object after single invisible displacement. At this stage, singleton kids and males performed better than twins and females. Birth weight had no effect at this stage. The findings suggest that maternal cortisol in the observed range had a facilitating effect on cognitive development of goat kids.

Attained SES as a moderator of adult cognitive performance: Testing gene-environment interaction in various cognitive domains.

We examined whether attained socioeconomic status (SES) moderated genetic and environmental sources of individual differences in cognitive performance using pooled data from 9 adult twin studies. Prior work concerning SES moderation of cognitive performance has focused on rearing SES. The current adult sample of 12,196 individuals (aged 27-98 years) allowed for the examination of common sources of individual differences between attained SES and cognitive performance (signaling potential gene-environment correlation mechanisms, rGE), as well as sources of individual differences unique to cognitive performance (signaling potential gene-environment interaction mechanisms, G × E). Attained SES moderated sources of individual differences in 4 cognitive domains, assessed via performance on 5 cognitive tests ranging 2,149 to 8,722 participants. Attained SES moderated common sources of influences for 3 domains and influences unique to cognition in all 4 domains. The net effect was that genetic influences on the common pathway tended to be relatively more important at the upper end of attained SES indicating possible active rGE, whereas, genetic influences for the unique pathway were proportionally stable or less important at the upper end of attained SES. As a noted exception, at the upper end of attained SES, genetic influences unique to perceptual speed were amplified and genetic influences on the common pathway were dampened. Accounting for rearing SES did not alter attained SES moderation effects on cognitive performance, suggesting mechanisms germane to adulthood. Our findings suggest the importance of gene-environment mechanisms through which attained SES moderates sources of individual differences in cognitive performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

C957T-mediated Variation in Ligand Affinity Affects the Association between 11C-raclopride Binding Potential and Cognition.

The dopamine (DA) system plays an important role in cognition. Accordingly, normal variation in DA genes has been found to predict individual differences in cognitive performance. However, little is known of the impact of genetic differences on the link between empirical indicators of the DA system and cognition in humans. The present work used PET with 11C-raclopride to assess DA D2-receptor binding potential (BP) and links to episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed in 179 healthy adults aged 64-68 years. Previously, the T-allele of a DA D2-receptor single-nucleotide polymorphism, C957T, was associated with increased apparent affinity of 11C-raclopride, giving rise to higher BP values despite similar receptor density values between allelic groups. Consequently, we hypothesized that 11C-raclopride BP measures inflated by affinity rather than D2-receptor density in T-allele carriers would not be predictive of DA integrity and therefore prevent finding an association between 11C-raclopride BP and cognitive performance. In accordance with previous findings, we show that 11C-raclopride BP was increased in T-homozygotes. Importantly, 11C-raclopride BP was only associated with cognitive performance in groups with low or average ligand affinity (C-allele carriers of C957T, n = 124), but not in the high-affinity group (T-homozygotes, n = 55). The strongest 11C-raclopride BP-cognition associations and the highest level of performance were found in C-homozygotes. These findings show that genetic differences modulate the link between BP and cognition and thus have important implications for the interpretation of DA assessments with PET and 11C-raclopride in multiple disciplines ranging from cognitive neuroscience to psychiatry and neurology.

Measurement matters: higher waist-to-hip ratio but not body mass index is associated with deficits in executive functions and episodic memory.

BackgroundThe current study aimed to reconcile the inconsistent findings between obesity, executive functions, and episodic memory by addressing major limitations of previous studies, including overreliance on body mass index (BMI), small sample sizes, and failure to control for confounds.MethodsParticipants consisted of 3,712 midlife adults from the Cognitive Project of the National Survey of Midlife Development. Executive functions and episodic memory were measured by a battery of cognitive function tests.ResultsWe found that higher waist-to-hip ratio was associated with deficits in both executive functions and episodic memory, above and beyond the influence of demographics, comorbid health issues, health behaviors, personality traits, and self-perceived obesity. However, higher BMI was not associated with deficits in executive functions and episodic memory. More importantly, these differential associations were robust and stable across adulthood.DiscussionOur findings confirm the association between obesity and episodic memory while highlighting the need for better measures of obesity when examining its associations with individual differences in cognitive functions.

The frequency of alpha oscillations: Task-dependent modulation and its functional significance

Power (amplitude) and frequency are two important characteristics of EEG alpha oscillations (8–12 Hz). There is an extensive literature showing that alpha power can be modulated in a goal-oriented manner to either enhance or suppress sensory information processing. Only a few studies to date have examined the task-dependent modulation of alpha frequency. Instead, alpha frequency is often viewed as a trait variable, and used to characterize individual differences in cognitive functioning. We performed two experiments to examine the task-dependent modulation of alpha frequency and its functional significance. In the first experiment, high-density EEG was recorded from 21 participants performing a Sternberg working memory task. The results showed that: (1) during memory encoding, alpha frequency decreased with increasing memory load, whereas during memory retention and retrieval, alpha frequency increased with increasing memory load, (2) higher alpha frequency prior to the onset of probe was associated with longer reaction time, and (3) higher alpha frequency prior to the onset of cue or probe was associated with weaker early cue-evoked or probe-evoked neural responses. In the second experiment, simultaneous EEG-fMRI was recorded from 59 participants during resting state. An EEG-informed fMRI analysis revealed that the spontaneous fluctuations of alpha frequency, but not alpha power, were inversely associated with BOLD activity in the visual cortex. Taken together, these findings suggest that alpha frequency is task-dependent, may serve as an indicator of cortical excitability, and along with alpha power, provides more comprehensive indexing of sensory gating.

Long-term neurocognitive functioning after electroconvulsive therapy in patients with late-life depression.

There is ongoing concern about the possible negative impact of ECT on neurocognitive functioning in older patients. In this study, we aimed to characterize the long-term cognitive effects of ECT in patients with late-life depression, using an extensive neuropsychological battery. A total of 110 patients aged 55years and older with unipolar depression, referred for ECT were included. The neuropsychological test battery was assessed prior to ECT and 6months after the last ECT session. There were no statistically significant group-level changes from baseline to 6months post-ECT in any of the neuropsychological measurements. Individual differences in cognitive performance were detected using the Reliable Change Index. Patients with late-life depression do not show deleterious cognitive effects 6months following an ECT index course, although there are considerable differences at an individual level. Clinicians should not hesitate to prescribe ECT in older patients, as most of these patients will tolerate the treatment course and a small group will even experience a cognitive enhancement. However, clinicians should be aware that a small group of patients can experience cognitive side-effects. Further study is needed to predict which patients have a higher risk of developing cognitive side-effects.

Modeling the Covariance Structure of Complex Datasets Using Cognitive Models: An Application to Individual Differences and the Heritability of Cognitive Ability.

Understanding individual differences in cognitive performance is an important part of understanding how variations in underlying cognitive processes can result in variations in task performance. However, the exploration of individual differences in the components of the decision process-such as cognitive processing speed, response caution, and motor execution speed-in previous research has been limited. Here, we assess the heritability of the components of the decision process, with heritability having been a common aspect of individual differences research within other areas of cognition. Importantly, a limitation of previous work on cognitive heritability is the underlying assumption that variability in response times solely reflects variability in the speed of cognitive processing. This assumption has been problematic in other domains, due to the confounding effects of caution and motor execution speed on observed response times. We extend a cognitive model of decision-making to account for relatedness structure in a twin study paradigm. This approach can separately quantify different contributions to the heritability of response time. Using data from the Human Connectome Project, we find strong evidence for the heritability of response caution, and more ambiguous evidence for the heritability of cognitive processing speed and motor execution speed. Our study suggests that the assumption made in previous studies-that the heritability of cognitive ability is based on cognitive processing speed-may be incorrect. More generally, our methodology provides a useful avenue for future research in complex data that aims to analyze cognitive traits across different sources of related data, whether the relation is between people, tasks, experimental phases, or methods of measurement.

Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Cognitive Reserve Scale (I-CRS).

The original definition of cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the individual differences in cognitive performance after a brain damage or pathology. Several proxies were proposed to evaluate CR (education, occupational attainment, premorbid IQ, leisure activities). Recently, some scales were developed to measure CR taking into account several cognitively stimulating activities. The aim of this study is to adapt the Cognitive Reserve Scale (I-CRS) for the Italian population and to explore its psychometric properties. I-CRS was administered to 547 healthy participants, ranging from 18 to 89years old, along with neuropsychological and behavioral scales to evaluate cognitive functioning, depressive symptoms, and apathy. Cronbach's α, corrected item-total correlations, and the inter-item correlation matrix were calculated to evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale. Linear regression analysis was performed to build a correction grid of the I-CRS according to demographic variables. Correlational analyses were performed to explore the relationships between I-CRS and neuropsychological and behavioral scales. We found that age, sex, and education influenced the I-CRS score. Young adults and adults obtained higher I-CRS scores than elderly adults; women and participants with high educational attainment scored higher on I-CRS than men and participants with low education. I-CRS score correlated poorly with cognitive and depression scale scores, but moderately with apathy scale scores. I-CRS showed good psychometric properties and seemed to be a useful tool to assess CR in every adult life stage. Moreover, our findings suggest that apathy rather than depressive symptoms may interfere with the building of CR across the lifespan.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity Predicts Cognitive Impairment Related to Alzheimer's Disease.

Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) is a promising neuromarker for cognitive decline in aging population, based on its ability to reveal functional differences associated with cognitive impairment across individuals, and because rs-fMRI may be less taxing for participants than task-based fMRI or neuropsychological tests. Here, we employ an approach that uses rs-FC to predict the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (11 items; ADAS11) scores, which measure overall cognitive functioning, in novel individuals. We applied this technique, connectome-based predictive modeling, to a heterogeneous sample of 59 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, including normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and AD subjects. First, we built linear regression models to predict ADAS11 scores from rs-FC measured with Pearson's r correlation. The positive network model tested with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) significantly predicted individual differences in cognitive function from rs-FC. In a second analysis, we considered other functional connectivity features, accordance and discordance, which disentangle the correlation and anticorrelation components of activity timecourses between brain areas. Using partial least square regression and LOOCV, we again built models to successfully predict ADAS11 scores in novel individuals. Our study provides promising evidence that rs-FC can reveal cognitive impairment in an aging population, although more development is needed for clinical application.

A network model of behavioural performance in a rule learning task.

Humans demonstrate differences in performance on cognitive rule learning tasks which could involve differences in properties of neural circuits. An example model is presented to show how gating of the spread of neural activity could underlie rule learning and the generalization of rules to previously unseen stimuli. This model uses the activity of gating units to regulate the pattern of connectivity between neurons responding to sensory input and subsequent gating units or output units. This model allows analysis of network parameters that could contribute to differences in cognitive rule learning. These network parameters include differences in the parameters of synaptic modification and presynaptic inhibition of synaptic transmission that could be regulated by neuromodulatory influences on neural circuits. Neuromodulatory receptors play an important role in cognitive function, as demonstrated by the fact that drugs that block cholinergic muscarinic receptors can cause cognitive impairments. In discussions of the links between neuromodulatory systems and biologically based traits, the issue of mechanisms through which these linkages are realized is often missing. This model demonstrates potential roles of neural circuit parameters regulated by acetylcholine in learning context-dependent rules, and demonstrates the potential contribution of variation in neural circuit properties and neuromodulatory function to individual differences in cognitive function.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.

Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of cognitive abilities

Cognitive functions are important correlates of health outcomes across the life-course. Individual differences in cognitive functions are partly heritable. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are susceptible to both genetic and environmental factors and may provide insights into individual differences in cognitive functions. Epigenome-wide meta-analyses for blood-based DNA methylation levels at ~420,000 CpG sites were performed for seven measures of cognitive functioning using data from 11 cohorts. CpGs that passed a Bonferroni correction, adjusting for the number of CpGs and cognitive tests, were assessed for: longitudinal change; being under genetic control (methylation QTLs); and associations with brain health (structural MRI), brain methylation and Alzheimer's disease pathology. Across the seven measures of cognitive functioning (meta-analysis n range: 2557–6809), there were epigenome-wide significant (P < 1.7 × 10-8) associations for global cognitive function (cg21450381, P = 1.6 × 10-8), and phonemic verbal fluency (cg12507869, P = 2.5 × 10-9). The CpGs are located in an intergenic region on chromosome 12 and the INPP5A gene on chromosome 10, respectively. Both probes have moderate correlations (~0.4) with brain methylation in Brodmann area 20 (ventral temporal cortex). Neither probe showed evidence of longitudinal change in late-life or associations with white matter brain MRI measures in one cohort with these data. A methylation QTL analysis suggested that rs113565688 was a cis methylation QTL for cg12507869 (P = 5 × 10-5 and 4 × 10-13 in two lookup cohorts). We demonstrate a link between blood-based DNA methylation and measures of phonemic verbal fluency and global cognitive ability. Further research is warranted to understand the mechanisms linking genomic regulatory changes with cognitive function to health and disease.