Specific impairments in visuospatial working and short-term memory following low-dose scopolamine challenge in healthy older adults

Visual short-term memory of young and older adults was studied in relation to imaging ability. Both recall and recognition memory tasks were used and additional variables included stimulus complexity and response delay (recognition tasks) and stimulus complexity and visual masking (recall tasks). Young and older participants were matched on visual discrimination, verbal intelligence, and imaging ability. Stimuli consisted of abstract visual patterns. Age-related decrements in recognition and recall were observed but performance was related to imaging ability only with recall tasks and only for older adults. The results were discussed with reference to mediational strategies and locus of occurrence of age-related decrements in short-term memory.

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Retrospective Attention in Short-Term Memory Has a Lasting Effect on Long-Term Memory Across Age

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gby045 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 74 (8) ◽

pp. 1317-1325 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jonathan Strunk ◽

Lauren Morgan ◽

Sarah Reaves ◽

Paul Verhaeghen ◽

Audrey Duarte

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Healthy Aging ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Effective Means ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Short And Long Term

Abstract Objectives Declines in both short- and long-term memory are typical of healthy aging. Recent findings suggest that retrodictive attentional cues (“retro-cues”) that indicate the location of to-be-probed items in short-term memory (STM) have a lasting impact on long-term memory (LTM) performance in young adults. Whether older adults can also use retro-cues to facilitate both STM and LTM is unknown. Method Young and older adults performed a visual STM task in which spatially informative retro-cues or noninformative neutral-cues were presented during STM maintenance of real-world objects. We tested participants’ memory at both STM and LTM delays for objects that were previously cued with retrodictive or neutral-cues during STM order to measure the lasting impact of retrospective attention on LTM. Results Older adults showed reduced STM and LTM capacity compared to young adults. However, they showed similar magnitude retro-cue memory benefits as young adults at both STM and LTM delays. Discussion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate whether retro-cues in STM facilitate the encoding of objects into LTM such that they are more likely to be subsequently retrieved by older adults. Our results support the idea that retrospective attention can be an effective means by which older adults can improve their STM and LTM performance, even in the context of reduced memory capacity.

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Subjective memory impairment, instrumental activities of daily living and longitudinal effect on mortality among older adults in a population-based cohort study: The HUNT Study

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1177/1403494819885234 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (8) ◽

pp. 825-831 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gro Gujord Tangen ◽

Ellen Melbye Langballe ◽

Bjørn Heine Strand

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Mortality Risk ◽

Daily Living ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Population Based ◽

Short Term ◽

Subjective Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Memory Impairments ◽

Instrumental Activities

Background: Subjective impairment in memory and instrumental activities in daily living (IADL) are associated with future cognitive decline and poorer mental health in older adults, but their association with mortality is uncertain. Our aim was to examine the associations between subjective memory and IADL impairments and all-cause mortality, as well as the mortality risk for reporting both memory and IADL impairments. Methods: Data from the 70-year-old and older cohort in the third survey of a population-based study, the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT3), were linked to the Norwegian Causes of Death Registry. A total of 5802 older adults had complete data from HUNT3 (70.8% of the 70+ cohort). The mean follow-up time was 8.0 years, and 1870 respondents had died. Associations between subjective memory and ADL impairments with mortality were analysed in Cox regression models adjusted for covariates with attained age as the timescale. Analyses were performed separately for two age groups – 70–79 and 80+ years – to fulfil the proportional hazards assumption. Results: Subjective impairments in short-term memory and IADL were significantly associated with mortality both separately and combined. These associations were strongest in the 70- to 79-year-old group, where reporting impairment on one short-term memory item increased the mortality risk by 51% (hazard ratio=1.51; 95% confidence interval 1.20–1.91). Long-term memory impairments were not associated with mortality in the adjusted models. Conclusions: Subjective short-term memory impairments and IADL impairments are associated with increased mortality risk. Neither of these symptoms should be regarded as benign aspects of ageing, and concerns should be properly addressed.

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Comparison of cognitive functions among frail and prefrail older adults: a clinical perspective

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610218000765 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 297-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bárbara Bispo da Silva Alves ◽

Elizabete de Oliveira Barbosa ◽

Daniel de Moraes Pimentel ◽

Lara S. F. Carneiro ◽

Ana Carolina M. A. Rodrigues ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Functions ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Digit Span ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

P Value ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Global Cognition

ABSTRACTObjective:To compare cognitive function among frail and prefrail older adults.Design:Cross-sectional clinical study.Participants:Fifty-one non-institutionalized older individuals participated in this study.Measurements:Cognitive functions were evaluated through Mini-Mental State Examination (Global Cognition), Digit Span Forward (short-term memory), Digit Span Backward (working memory), Verbal Fluency Test (semantic memory/executive function). Data were compared using parametric and non-parametric bivariate tests. Binary logistic regression was used to test a frailty prediction model. Statistical significance was defined as p ≤ 0.01 to compare groups. In the regression model, the p value was set to be ≤0.05.Results:Statistically significant differences were observed in global cognition, and short-term memory between frail and prefrail individuals (p ≤ 0.01). Global cognition explained 14–19% of frailty's model.Conclusion:According to our findings, the evaluation of cognitive functions among older persons with frailty and prefrailty provides important complementary information to better manage frailty and its progression.

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Visual short-term memory binding deficit with age-related hearing loss in cognitively normal older adults

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-49023-1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David G. Loughrey ◽

Mario A. Parra ◽

Brian A. Lawlor

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Hearing Loss ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Cognitively Normal ◽

Term Memory ◽

Visual Short Term Memory ◽

Memory Binding ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Related Hearing Loss

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The Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.947 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 295-296

Author(s):

Hillary Rouse ◽

Brent Small ◽

John Schinka

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Executive Function ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

English Speakers ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Neuropsychological Assessments ◽

The Impact

Abstract Research on bilingualism has found inconsistent results regarding its potential benefit on the cognitive abilities of older adults. The goal of the current study was to evaluate differences in cognition on a wide array of neuropsychological assessments between monolingual and bilingual cognitively healthy older adults who specifically speak only English and/or Spanish. The sample included cognitively intact older adults who were either monolingual (n=247) English speakers or bilingual (n=42) in English and Spanish. Performance was compared between groups from a battery of neuropsychological assessments that measured executive function, attention, short-term memory, and episodic memory. Compared to English and Spanish bilinguals, monolingual English speakers performed significantly better on a variety of tasks within the domains of executive function, attention, and short-term memory. No significant differences were found in favor of the bilinguals on any domain of cognitive performance. In the present study, we failed to observe a significant advantage for English and Spanish bilingual speakers on the cognitive performance of older adults when compared to monolingual English speakers. This study suggests that the bilingual advantage may not be as robust as originally reported, and the effects of bilingualism on cognition could be significantly impacted by the languages included in the study.

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Semantic encoding of spoken sentences: Adult aging and the preservation of conceptual short-term memory

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716406060371 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 487-511 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

DEBORAH M. LITTLE ◽

LAUREN M. McGRATH ◽

KRISTEN J. PRENTICE ◽

ARTHUR WINGFIELD

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Human Memory ◽

Conceptual Representation ◽

Linguistic Context ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Phonological Store ◽

Adult Aging ◽

Selection Of

Traditional models of human memory have postulated the need for a brief phonological or verbatim representation of verbal input as a necessary gateway to a higher level conceptual representation of the input. Potter has argued that meaningful sentences may be encoded directly in a conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) running parallel in time to such a phonological store. The primary aim of the current study was to evaluate two main tenets of the CSTM model: that linguistic context biases selection of information entering the conceptual store, and that information not integrated into a coherent structure is rapidly forgotten. Results confirmed these predictions for spoken sentences heard by both young and older adults, supporting the generality of the model and suggesting that CSTM remains stable in normal aging.

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Variability in Cognitive Performance on Mobile Devices Is Sensitive to Mild Cognitive Impairment: Results From the Einstein Aging Study

Frontiers in Digital Health ◽

10.3389/fdgth.2021.758031 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Eric S. Cerino ◽

Mindy J. Katz ◽

Cuiling Wang ◽

Jiyue Qin ◽

Qi Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Cognitive Status ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Visual Short Term Memory ◽

Memory Binding

Background and Objective: Within-person variability in cognitive performance has emerged as a promising indicator of cognitive health with potential to distinguish normative and pathological cognitive aging. We use a smartphone-based digital health approach with ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine differences in variability in performance among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and those who were cognitively unimpaired (CU).Method: A sample of 311 systematically recruited, community-dwelling older adults from the Einstein Aging Study (Mean age = 77.46 years, SD = 4.86, Range = 70–90; 67% Female; 45% Non-Hispanic White, 40% Non-Hispanic Black) completed neuropsychological testing, neurological assessments, and self-reported questionnaires. One hundred individuals met Jak/Bondi criteria for MCI. All participants performed mobile cognitive tests of processing speed, visual short-term memory binding, and spatial working memory on a smartphone device up to six times daily for 16 days, yielding up to 96 assessments per person. We employed heterogeneous variance multilevel models using log-linear prediction of residual variance to simultaneously assess cognitive status differences in mean performance, within-day variability, and day-to-day variability. We further tested whether these differences were robust to the influence of environmental contexts under which assessments were performed.Results: Individuals with MCI exhibited greater within-day variability than those who were CU on ambulatory assessments that measure processing speed (p < 0.001) and visual short-term memory binding (p < 0.001) performance but not spatial working memory. Cognitive status differences in day-to-day variability were present only for the measure of processing speed. Associations between cognitive status and within-day variability in performance were robust to adjustment for sociodemographic and contextual variables.Conclusion: Our smartphone-based digital health approach facilitates the ambulatory assessment of cognitive performance in older adults and the capacity to differentiate individuals with MCI from those who were CU. Results suggest variability in mobile cognitive performance is sensitive to MCI and exhibits dissociative patterns by timescale and cognitive domain. Variability in processing speed and visual short-term memory binding performance may provide specific detection of MCI. The 16-day smartphone-based EMA measurement burst offers novel opportunity to leverage digital technology to measure performance variability across frequent assessments for studying cognitive health and identifying early clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment.

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The relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in older adults: a cross-sectional study

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.2254 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e2254 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Wei Guo ◽

Biye Wang ◽

Yue Lu ◽

Qin Zhu ◽

Zhihao Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Visuospatial Working Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Sedentary Group ◽

The Relationship

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in healthy older adults. A cross-sectional design was adopted. A total of 111 healthy older adults were enrolled in the study. They were classified by the exercise-related questionnaire to be in an open-skill group, closed-skill group or sedentary group. In experiment 1, the participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. The results indicated that both closed-skill (p< 0.05) and open-skill (p< 0.01) groups reached a higher accuracy than the sedentary group. Experiment 2 examined whether the exercise-induced benefit of working memory was manifested in passive maintenance or active manipulation of working memory which was assessed by visuospatial short-term memory task and visuospatial mental rotation task, respectively. The results showed that the open-skill (p< 0.01) group was more accurate than the sedentary group in the visuospatial short-term memory task, whereas the group difference in the visuospatial mental rotation task was not significant. These findings combined to suggest that physical exercise was associated with better visuospatial working memory in older adults. Furthermore, open-skill exercises that demand higher cognitive processing showed selective benefit for passive maintenance of working memory.

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