Relationship Between Personality and Executive Functioning in Older Adults

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aviva Y. Androphy ◽  
Richard Zweig
Author(s):  
Jessika I. V. Buitenweg ◽  
Jaap M. J. Murre ◽  
K. Richard Ridderinkhof

AbstractAs the world’s population is aging rapidly, cognitive training is an extensively used approach to attempt improvement of age-related cognitive functioning. With increasing numbers of older adults required to remain in the workforce, it is important to be able to reliably predict future functional decline, as well as the individual advantages of cognitive training. Given the correlation between age-related decline and striatal dopaminergic function, we investigated whether eye blink rate (EBR), a non-invasive, indirect indicator of dopaminergic activity, could predict executive functioning (response inhibition, switching and working memory updating) as well as trainability of executive functioning in older adults. EBR was collected before and after a cognitive flexibility training, cognitive training without flexibility, or a mock training. EBR predicted working memory updating performance on two measures of updating, as well as trainability of working memory updating, whereas performance and trainability in inhibition and switching tasks could not be predicted by EBR. Our findings tentatively indicate that EBR permits prediction of working memory performance in older adults. To fully interpret the relationship with executive functioning, we suggest future research should assess both EBR and dopamine receptor availability among seniors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 881-882
Author(s):  
Alexandra Watral ◽  
Kevin Trewartha

Abstract Motor decision-making processes are required for many standard neuropsychological tasks, including the Trail Making Test (TMT), that aim to assess cognitive functioning in older adults. However, in their standard formats, it is difficult to isolate the relative contributions of sensorimotor and cognitive processes to performance on these neuropsychological tasks. Recently developed clinical tasks use a robotic manipulandum to assess both motor and cognitive aspects of rapid motor decision making in an object hit (OH) and object hit and avoid (OHA) task. We administered the OH and OHA tasks to 77 healthy younger adults and 59 healthy older adults to assess age differences in the motor and cognitive measures of performance. We administered the TMT parts A and B to assess the extent to which OHA performance is associated with executive functioning in particular. The results indicate that after controlling for hand speed, older adults performed worse on the OH and OHA tasks than younger adults, performance declines were far greater in the OHA task, and the global performance measures, which have been associated with cognitive status, were more sensitive to age differences than motor measures of performance. Those global measures of performance were also associated with measures of executive functioning on the TMT task. These findings provide evidence that rapid motor decision making tasks are sensitive to declines in executive control in aging. They also provide a way to isolate cognitive declines from declines in sensorimotor processes that are likely a contributing factor to age differences in neuropsychological test performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (7) ◽  
pp. 1876-1887
Author(s):  
Sandrine Kalenzaga ◽  
David Clarys ◽  
Pascale Piolino

The present study aimed at exploring the effect of stereotype threat on the controlled part of memory in older adults using a deep level of processing, namely, self-reference encoding. To meet this objective, 25 younger adults and 25 older adults performed a Remember/Know recognition task following self-reference versus other-reference encoding of adjective traits, under stereotype threat or not. The results indicated that under stereotype threat, older adults’ production of Remember responses was specifically impaired following self-reference encoding. Moreover, whereas executive functioning and group identification did not moderate stereotype threat effect, measure of self-worth did. These findings suggest that stereotype threat in older adults may be a self-concept threat and that moderators of stereotype threat found in other groups (i.e., group identification and executive functioning) may not be generalised to this group. Rather, as stereotype threat in aging may represent a threat to the self, self-worth might have a central role, whereby individuals with high self-worth remain self-confident even under stereotype threat and are thus able to down-regulate their negative affects to face such a threat.


Author(s):  
Stephanie Hatzifilalithis ◽  
Elisavet Chrysochoou ◽  
George Pavlidis ◽  
Ana B. Vivas

The present study examined the relation between cognitive performance and social networking in older adults from Canada and Greece. The two groups were matched on age, gender, education level, and MMSE scores. Participants reported the amount of both off-line and online networking, as well as the social support received in these contexts. Immediate and delayed recall, speed of processing, and executive functioning were also assessed. Online networking was associated with executive functioning. Interestingly, country context didn’t moderate the relationship, despite differences observed between Greeks and Canadians in executive functioning and online networking. Our findings suggest that online social participation could serve both as a source of social support and as cognitive training, benefiting older adults’ cognitive vitality. The findings are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the specific countries, stressing the need to explore the effects of online social networking and participation on cognitive function in the aging population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1193-1198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine R Ayers ◽  
Eliza J Davidson ◽  
Mary E Dozier ◽  
Elizabeth W Twamley

Abstract Objectives Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterized by urges to save items, difficulty discarding possessions, and excessive clutter and has been associated with executive functioning deficits. A randomized controlled trial comparing Cognitive Rehabilitation and Exposure/Sorting Therapy (CREST) with a care management control condition demonstrated the efficacy of CREST in reducing hoarding symptoms in older adults. The purpose of the current study was to assess whether CREST may also lead to improved executive functioning. Method All participants were administered a neurocognitive battery at baseline and posttreatment. Linear mixed models with random intercepts were used to evaluate change in global neuropsychological functioning as well as change in individual executive functioning variables. Results There was no significant group by time interaction for the Global Deficit score; however, there were significant group by time interactions on two of the executive functioning variables examined, such that participants in the CREST condition demonstrated significant improvement in cognitive flexibility and inhibition over time compared with the participants in the care management condition. Discussion Our initial findings support the notion that CREST may be able to improve task switching, an important component of executive functioning, in older adults with HD.


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