The handbook of aging and cognition
01 Jan 1992-
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a broad overview of the field of cognitive aging research, including abnormal aging, the neuroscience of aging, and applied cognitive psychology along with the core section on basic cognitive processes.
Abstract: The study of age-related changes in cognitive processes is flourishing as never before, making the area an exciting one for a growing number of researchers. In addition, cognitive aging research is moving out from its traditional roots in experimental and developmental psychology -- creating increased contact with cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. To reflect these changes in the field, this volume includes chapters on abnormal aging, the neuroscience of aging, and applied cognitive psychology along with the core section on basic cognitive processes. While other recent compilations of research in this area have given relatively brief overviews of the literature, the contributors were given space to review each topic in depth, asked to evaluate the field -- not simply their own contributions -- and to provide critical commentaries from their personal perspectives. Couched most often in terms of cognitive or information-processing models, the general perspective of the contributors is a biologically-based account of aging. This shared viewpoint gives the volume particular coherence in its treatment of theories and data. Topics covered include age differences in attention, perception, memory, knowledge representation, reasoning, and language as well as their neuropsychological and neurological correlates and practical implications.
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TL;DR: For instance, the authors found that recall is more sensitive than familiarity to response speeding, division of attention, generation, semantic encoding, the effects of aging, and the amnestic effects of benzodiazepines, while familiarity is less sensitive to shifts in response criterion, fluency manipulations, forgetting over short retention intervals, and some perceptual manipulations.
Abstract: To account for dissociations observed in recognition memory tests, several dual-process models have been proposed that assume that recognition judgments can be based on the recollection of details about previous events or on the assessment of stimulus familiarity. In the current article, these models are examined, along with the methods that have been developed to measure recollection and familiarity. The relevant empirical literature from behavioral, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging studies is then reviewed in order to assess model predictions. Results from a variety of measurement methods, including task-dissociation and process-estimation methods, are found to lead to remarkably consistent conclusions about the nature of recollection and familiarity, particularly when ceiling effects are avoided. For example, recollection is found to be more sensitive than familiarity to response speeding, division of attention, generation, semantic encoding, the effects of aging, and the amnestic effects of benzodiazepines, but it is less sensitive than familiarity to shifts in response criterion, fluency manipulations, forgetting over short retention intervals, and some perceptual manipulations. Moreover, neuropsychological and neuroimaging results indicate that the two processes rely on partially distinct neural substrates and provide support for models that assume that recollection relies on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, whereas familiarity relies on regions surrounding the hippocampus. Double dissociations produced by experimental manipulations at time of test indicate that the two processes are independent at retrieval, and single dissociations produced by study manipulations indicate that they are partially independent during encoding. Recollection is similar but not identical to free recall, whereas familiarity is similar to conceptual implicit memory, but is dissociable from perceptual implicit memory. Finally, the results indicate that recollection reflects a thresholdlike retrieval process that supports novel learning, whereas familiarity reflects a signal-detection process that can support novel learning only under certain conditions. The results verify a number of model predictions and prove useful in resolving several theoretical disagreements.
3,434 citations
TL;DR: The results suggest that low- performing older adults recruited a similar network as young adults but used it inefficiently, whereas high-performing older adults counteracted age-related neural decline through a plastic reorganization of neurocognitive networks.
Abstract: Whereas some older adults show significant cognitive deficits, others perform as well as young adults. We investigated the neural basis of these different aging patterns using positron emission tomography (PET). In PET and functional MRI (fMRI) studies, prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity tends to be less asymmetric in older than in younger adults (Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Old Adults or HAROLD). This change may help counteract age-related neurocognitive decline (compensation hypothesis) or it may reflect an age-related difficulty in recruiting specialized neural mechanisms (dedifferentiation hypothesis). To compare these two hypotheses, we measured PFC activity in younger adults, low-performing older adults, and high-performing older adults during recall and source memory of recently studied words. Compared to recall, source memory was associated with right PFC activations in younger adults. Low-performing older adults recruited similar right PFC regions as young adults, but high-performing older adults engaged PFC regions bilaterally. Thus, consistent with the compensation hypothesis and inconsistent with the dedifferentiation hypothesis, a hemispheric asymmetry reduction was found in high-performing but not in low-performing older adults. The results suggest that low-performing older adults recruited a similar network as young adults but used it inefficiently, whereas high-performing older adults counteracted age-related neural decline through a plastic reorganization of neurocognitive networks.
1,797 citations
Cites background from "The handbook of aging and cognition..."
...Given these changes, it is not surprising that older adults perform more poorly than young adults in a variety of cognitive tasks, including perception, attention, and memory tasks ( Craik and Salthouse, 2000 )....
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TL;DR: The hippocampal formation and related structures are involved in certain forms of memory (e.g. autobiographical episodic and spatial memory) for as long as they exist and contribute to the transformation and stabilization of other form of memory stored elsewhere in the brain.
Abstract: Results from recent studies of retrograde amnesia following damage to the hippocampal complex of human and non-human subjects have shown that retrograde amnesia is extensive and can encompass much of a subject's lifetime; the degree of loss may depend upon the type of memory assessed. These and other findings suggest that the hippocampal formation and related structures are involved in certain forms of memory (e.g. autobiographical episodic and spatial memory) for as long as they exist and contribute to the transformation and stabilization of other forms of memory stored elsewhere in the brain.
1,743 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that both cognitive abilities and motivation contribute to older adults' improved emotion regulation.
Abstract: As people get older, they experience fewer negative emotions. Strategic processes in older adults' emotional attention and memory might play a role in this variation with age. Older adults show more emotionally gratifying memory distortion for past choices and autobiographical information than younger adults do. In addition, when shown stimuli that vary in affective valence, positive items account for a larger proportion of older adults' subsequent memories than those of younger adults. This positivity effect in older adults' memories seems to be due to their greater focus on emotion regulation and to be implemented by cognitive control mechanisms that enhance positive and diminish negative information. These findings suggest that both cognitive abilities and motivation contribute to older adults' improved emotion regulation.
1,646 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated for the first time to the authors' knowledge, in humans that increases in cardiovascular fitness results in increased functioning of key aspects of the attentional network of the brain during a cognitively challenging task.
Abstract: Cardiovascular fitness is thought to offset declines in cognitive performance, but little is known about the cortical mechanisms that underlie these changes in humans. Research using animal models shows that aerobic training increases cortical capillary supplies, the number of synaptic connections, and the development of new neurons. The end result is a brain that is more efficient, plastic, and adaptive, which translates into better performance in aging animals. Here, in two separate experiments, we demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge, in humans that increases in cardiovascular fitness results in increased functioning of key aspects of the attentional network of the brain during a cognitively challenging task. Specifically, highly fit (Study 1) or aerobically trained (Study 2) persons show greater task-related activity in regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortices that are involved in spatial selection and inhibitory functioning, when compared with low-fit (Study 1) or nonaerobic control (Study 2) participants. Additionally, in both studies there exist groupwise differences in activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is thought to monitor for conflict in the attentional system, and signal the need for adaptation in the attentional network. These data suggest that increased cardiovascular fitness can affect improvements in the plasticity of the aging human brain, and may serve to reduce both biological and cognitive senescence in humans.
1,550 citations
References
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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: The Mini-Mental State (MMS) as mentioned in this paper is a simplified version of the standard WAIS with eleven questions and requires only 5-10 min to administer, and is therefore practical to use serially and routinely.
Abstract: EXAMINATION of the mental state is essential in evaluating psychiatric patients.1 Many investigators have added quantitative assessment of cognitive performance to the standard examination, and have documented reliability and validity of the several “clinical tests of the sensorium”.2*3 The available batteries are lengthy. For example, WITHERS and HINTON’S test includes 33 questions and requires about 30 min to administer and score. The standard WAIS requires even more time. However, elderly patients, particularly those with delirium or dementia syndromes, cooperate well only for short periods.4 Therefore, we devised a simplified, scored form of the cognitive mental status examination, the “Mini-Mental State” (MMS) which includes eleven questions, requires only 5-10 min to administer, and is therefore practical to use serially and routinely. It is “mini” because it concentrates only on the cognitive aspects of mental functions, and excludes questions concerning mood, abnormal mental experiences and the form of thinking. But within the cognitive realm it is thorough. We have documented the validity and reliability of the MMS when given to 206 patients with dementia syndromes, affective disorder, affective disorder with cognitive impairment “pseudodementia”5T6), mania, schizophrenia, personality disorders, and in 63 normal subjects.
70,887 citations
TL;DR: Developments of an open-field water-maze procedure in which rats learn to escape from opaque water onto a hidden platform are described, suggesting that they may lend themselves to a variety of behavioural investigations, including pharmacological work and studies of cerebral function.
Abstract: Developments of an open-field water-maze procedure in which rats learn to escape from opaque water onto a hidden platform are described. These include a procedure (A) for automatically tracking the spatial location of a hooded rat without the use of attached light-emitting diodes; (B) for studying different aspects of spatial memory (e.g. working memory); and (C) for studying non-spatial discrimination learning. The speed with which rats learn these tasks suggests that they may lend themselves to a variety of behavioural investigations, including pharmacological work and studies of cerebral function.
6,609 citations
"The handbook of aging and cognition..." refers methods in this paper
..., rats or mice), and cognitive performance has most often been assessed by measuring memory performance in the Morris Water Maze (Morris, 1984)....
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...The animal most commonly used in these studies has been the rodent (i.e., rats or mice), and cognitive performance has most often been assessed by measuring memory performance in the Morris Water Maze (Morris, 1984)....
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TL;DR: A 10‐item Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), easily administered by any clinician in the office or in a hospital, has been designed, tested, standardized and validated.
Abstract: Clinicians whose practice includes elderly patients need a short, reliable instrument to detect the presence of intellectual impairment and to determine the degree. A 10-item Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), easily administered by any clinician in the office or in a hospital, has been designed, tested, standardized and validated. The standardization and validation procedure included administering the test to 997 elderly persons residing in the community, to 141 elderly persons referred for psychiatric and other health and social problems to a multipurpose clinic, and to 102 elderly persons living in institutions such as nursing homes, homes for the aged, or state mental hospitals. It was found that educational level and race had to be taken into account in scoring individual performance. On the basis of the large community population, standards of performance were established for: 1) intact mental functioning, 2) borderline or mild organic impairment, 3) definite but moderate organic impairment, and 4) severe organic impairment. In the 141 clinic patients, the SPMSQ scores were correlated with the clinical diagnoses. There was a high level of agreement between the clinical diagnosis of organic brain syndrome and the SPMSQ scores that indicated moderate or severe organic impairment.
4,897 citations
"The handbook of aging and cognition..." refers methods in this paper
...…Mental State Exam (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975), the Blessed Dementia Scale (Blessed, Tomlinson, & Roth, 1968), the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (Pfeiffer, 1975), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT; Watson, Arfken, & Birge, 1993) and the 7-Minute Screen (Solomon et al., 1998)....
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...The most widely used screening tests are the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975), the Blessed Dementia Scale (Blessed, Tomlinson, & Roth, 1968), the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (Pfeiffer, 1975), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT; Watson, Arfken, & Birge, 1993) and the 7-Minute Screen (Solomon et al., 1998)....
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...The most widely used screening tests are the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975), the Blessed Dementia Scale (Blessed, Tomlinson, & Roth, 1968), the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (Pfeiffer, 1975), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT; Watson, Arfken, & Birge, 1993) and the 7-Minute Screen (Solomon et al....
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TL;DR: The expectation of mental disorder shows a steep increase with advancing chronological age, and beyond 75 years a large part of this increase is accounted for by disorders associated with degenerative changes in the central nervous system for which the authors lack remedies at the present time.
Abstract: 1. The association between plaque counts in sections of cerebral cortex and measures of intellectual and personality functioning undertaken in elderly subjects during life has been studied.
2. There was no evidence that degenerative changes had contributed significantly to the causation of illness in patients with "functional" psychiatric disorders or delirious states.
3. There is a highly significant correlation between mean plaque counts and scores for dementia and performance in psychological tests. The findings suggest that psychological and pathological indices are closely related to one another, possibly through their common association with the underlying degenerative process in the brain.
4. Among severely demented subjects and those diagnosed clinically as "senile dements", correlations between psychological and pathological measures decline sharply. However, pathological differences between normal, mildly demented, and severely demented subjects appear to be of a quantitative nature. The possibility that there are qualitative differences in this group, inaccessible to present methods of examination, cannot be excluded.
4,058 citations
01 Jan 1907
1,829 citations
"The handbook of aging and cognition..." refers background in this paper
...Since AD was first described, it has been clear that the symptoms develop gradually over many years (Alzheimer, 1907)....
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