Effect of aging on visual attention: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jia Fu ◽  
Guoming Yu ◽  
Lun Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Attention Network Test ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Simultaneous Testing ◽  
Significant Impairment ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Attention Function

We investigated the effects of aging on attentional functions using the Attention Network Test (ANT), which enables simultaneous testing of alerting, orienting, and executive networks, and their interactions. Participants were 38 young adults (Mage = 21.35 years) and 36 older adults (Mage = 71.17 years). Although the older adults exhibited a slower overall response, the three attentional functions showed different modulation according to age group and the trial block being completed. Older adults exhibited significant impairment in the alerting function, regardless of whether they were completing the first or second block of trials, whereas their executive function decreased significantly only in Block 2 owing to cognitive fatigue. Both age groups performed similarly for the orienting function. Future researchers should seek to further clarify the specificity of attention function with people aged over 70 years to address their attention disturbance.

scholarly journals Slowed sensory reweighting and postural illusions in older adults: the moving platform illusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 690-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chesney E. Craig ◽  
Michail Doumas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Sensory Reweighting ◽  
Perceptual Illusion ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
Illusory Perception

We investigated whether postural aftereffects witnessed during transitions from a moving to a stable support are accompanied by a delayed perception of platform stabilization in older adults, in two experiments. In experiment 1, postural sway and muscle cocontraction were assessed in 11 healthy young, 11 healthy older, and 11 fall-prone older adults during blindfolded stance on a fixed platform, followed by a sway-referenced platform and then by a fixed platform again. The sway-referenced platform was more compliant for young adults, to induce similar levels of postural sway in both age groups. Participants were asked to press a button whenever they perceived that the platform had stopped moving. Both older groups showed significantly larger and longer postural sway aftereffects during platform stabilization compared with young adults, which were pronounced in fall-prone older adults. In both older groups elevated muscle cocontraction aftereffect was also witnessed. Importantly, these aftereffects were accompanied by an illusory perception of prolonged platform movement. After this, experiment 2 examined whether this illusory perception was a robust age effect or an experimental confound due to greater surface compliance in young adults, which could create a larger perceptual discrepancy between moving and stable conditions. Despite exposure to the same surface compliance levels during sway-reference, the perceptual illusion was maintained in experiment 2 in a new group of 14 healthy older adults compared with 11 young adults. In both studies, older adults took five times longer than young adults to perceive platform stabilization. This supports that sensory reweighting is inefficient in older adults. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first paper to show that postural sway aftereffects witnessed in older adults after platform stabilization may be due to a perceptual illusion of platform movement. Surprisingly, in both experiments presented it took older adults five times longer than young adults to perceive platform stabilization. This supports a hypothesis of less efficient sensory reintegration in this age group, which may delay the formation of an accurate postural percept.

Age Differences in Source Monitoring and Referent Discrimination

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinidad Ruiz-Gallego-Largo ◽  
Teresa Simón ◽  
Aurora G. Suengas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Source Monitoring ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reality Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Framework ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Two Age Groups

In contrast to previous studies which addressed separately memory for source and referent, the present experiment analyzes the effects of aging on memory for both, source and referent. The experiment simulated a conversation between two people exchanging descriptors of themselves and the other speaker (e.g., “I am helpful,” “you are capable”). Participants (N = 60) were divided into two age groups: younger (M = 23.47 years old, SD = 2.37), older (M = 70.30 years old, SD = 3.73). Recall, recognition, and accuracy in identifying source (e.g., “who said helpful?”) and referent (e.g., “about whom was capable said?”) were analyzed. Younger and older adults recalled and recognized equally well information read by the experimenter about herself, but only young adults showed better memory for the descriptors they read about themselves. Older adults were impaired in source monitoring, but not in reference discrimination. Normal referent discrimination in older adults is attributed to the fact that the referent forms part of the content of the episode, whereas who spoke it is part of its context, and older adults tend to show greater deficits in context than in content memory. These results are explained within the source and reality monitoring framework.

scholarly journals Differences Between Young and Older Adults in Working Memory and Performance on the Test of Basic Auditory Capabilities†

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry E. Humes ◽  
Gary R. Kidd ◽  
Jennifer J. Lentz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Age Related

The Test of Basic Auditory Capabilities (TBAC) is a battery of auditory-discrimination tasks and speech-identification tasks that has been normed on several hundred young normal-hearing adults. Previous research with the TBAC suggested that cognitive function may impact the performance of older adults. Here, we examined differences in performance on several TBAC tasks between a group of 34 young adults with a mean age of 22.5 years (SD = 3.1 years) and a group of 115 older adults with a mean age of 69.2 years (SD = 6.2 years) recruited from the local community. Performance of the young adults was consistent with prior norms for this age group. Not surprisingly, the two groups differed significantly in hearing loss and working memory with the older adults having more hearing loss and poorer working memory than the young adults. The two age groups also differed significantly in performance on six of the nine measures extracted from the TBAC (eight test scores and one average test score) with the older adults consistently performing worse than the young adults. However, when these age-group comparisons were repeated with working memory and hearing loss as covariates, the groups differed in performance on only one of the nine auditory measures from the TBAC. For eight of the nine TBAC measures, working memory was a significant covariate and hearing loss never emerged as a significant factor. Thus, the age-group deficits observed initially on the TBAC most often appeared to be mediated by age-related differences in working memory rather than deficits in auditory processing. The results of these analyses of age-group differences were supported further by linear-regression analyses with each of the 9 TBAC scores serving as the dependent measure and age, hearing loss, and working memory as the predictors. Regression analyses were conducted for the full set of 149 adults and for just the 115 older adults. Working memory again emerged as the predominant factor impacting TBAC performance. It is concluded that working memory should be considered when comparing the performance of young and older adults on auditory tasks, including the TBAC.

Multisensory cueing and the attention network test in aging

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Jeannette R. Mahoney ◽  
Joe Verghese ◽  
Kristina Dumas ◽  
Cuiling Wang ◽  
Roee Holtzer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Attention Network Test ◽  
Executive Attention ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Visual Orienting ◽  
Psychiatric Conditions ◽  
Main Effects

The Attention Network Test (ANT) assesses the effect of alerting and orienting cues on a visual flanker task measuring executive attention. Previous findings revealed that older adults demonstrate greater RT benefits when provided with visual orienting cues that offer both spatial and temporal information of an ensuing target. Given the overlap of neural correlates involved in multisensory processing and cueing (i.e., alerting and orienting), especially in the superior colliculus, thalamus, superior temporal and parietal regions, an investigation of multisensory cueing effects was warranted. The current study was designed to determine whether participants, both old and young, benefited from receiving multisensory alerting and orienting cues on a visual flanker task. Eighteen young (M = 19.17 yrs) and eighteen old (M = 76.44 yrs) individuals that were determined to be non-demented and without any medical or psychiatric conditions that would affect their performance were included. Results revealed main effects for the executive attention and orienting networks, but not for the alerting network. In terms of orienting, both old and young adults demonstrated significant orienting effects for auditory–somatosensory (AS), auditory–visual (AV), and visual–somatosensory (VS) cues. Benefits of multisensory compared to unisensory averaged orienting effects differed by cue type and age group; younger adults demonstrated significantly greater RT benefits for AS orienting cues whereas older adults demonstrated significantly greater RT benefits for AV orienting cues. Both groups, however, demonstrated significant RT benefits for VS orienting cues. These findings provide evidence for the facilitative effect of multisensory orienting cues, and not multisensory alerting cues, in old and young adults.

scholarly journals Effects of Aging on the Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Recollection of Memories Encoded by Social Interactions With Persons in the Same and Different Age Groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eri Tsuruha ◽  
Takashi Tsukiura
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Age Group ◽  
New Words ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Successful Retrieval ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Memories related to ingroup members are remembered more accurately than those related to outgroup members. However, little is known about the age-dependent differences in neural mechanisms underlying the retrieval of memories shared with ingroup or outgroup members that are categorized by age-group membership. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated this issue. Healthy young and older adults participated in a 2-day experiment. On the first day outside fMRI, participants were presented with words by unfamiliar persons in movie clips and exchanged each word with persons belonging to the same age group (SAG) or different age group (DAG). On the second day during fMRI, participants were randomly presented with learned and new words one by one, and they judged whether each word had been encoded with either SAG or DAG members or neither. fMRI results demonstrated that an age-dependent decrease in successful retrieval activation of memories presented by DAG was identified in the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and hippocampus, whereas with memories presented by SAG, an age-dependent decrease in activation was not found in any regions. In addition, an age-dependent decrease in functional connectivity was significant between the hippocampus/ATL and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) during the successful retrieval of memories encoded with the DAG people. The “other”-related mechanisms including the hippocampus, ATL, and pSTS with memories learned with the outgroup members could decrease in older adults, whereas with memories learned with the ingroup members, the “self”-related mechanisms could be relatively preserved in older adults.

scholarly journals Opioid Literacy in an Immigrant Group in Rural Area: Use of Social Determinant of Health Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 397-397
Author(s):  
Hee Yun Lee ◽  
Eun Young Choi ◽  
Jieun Song ◽  
Jamie Gajos ◽  
Yan Luo
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Middle Aged

Abstract Opioid overdose risk is particularly high in immigrant communities partly due to limited English proficiency (Guarino et al., 2015). Previous studies reported that social determinants of health (SDH) have been associated with risk for opioid overdose (Dasgupta et al., 2018). The current study examines the association between SDH and literacy of opioid overdose risk among the immigrant population living in a rural area. Specifically, we examine the association in various age groups including young adults (aged 20 to 34), middle-aged (aged 35 to 49), and older adults (ages 50 to 75). Data were drawn from a sample of Korean American immigrants residing in rural Alabama (N=225). The participants administered the Brief Opioid Knowledge (BOOK) Questionnaire (Dunn et al., 2016). Multiple regression analyses were conducted for three age groups to identify predictors of opioid literacy. Overall, older adults had lower levels of opioid literacy relative to their younger counterparts. Among young adults, low English proficiency, more chronic conditions, and greater depressive symptoms were significant predictors of limited opioid literacy. For the middle-aged adults, lower levels of health literacy and more pain symptoms were associated with limited opioid literacy. Among older adults, women, those with higher English proficiency, and lower health literacy had lower levels of opioid literacy. The findings demonstrated a greater vulnerability of older immigrants to limited opioid literacy. Different predictors based on SDH of limited opioid literacy across age groups have implications for tailored health promotion strategies to reduce opioid overdose risk.

scholarly journals Are the Acute Effects of THC Different in Aging Adults?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 590
Author(s):  
Raeghan L. Mueller ◽  
Jarrod M. Ellingson ◽  
L. Cinnamon Bidwell ◽  
Angela D. Bryan ◽  
Kent E. Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Young Group ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Aging Adults

In recent years of expanding legalization, older adults have reported the largest increase in cannabis use of any age group. While its use has been studied extensively in young adults, little is known about the effects of THC in older adults and whether the risks of cannabis might be different, particularly concerning intoxication and cognition. The current study investigated whether age is associated with the deleterious effects of THC on cognitive performance and other behavioral measures before and after ad libitum self-administration of three different types of cannabis flower (THC dominant, THC + CBD, and CBD dominant). Age groups consisted of young adults (ages 21–25) and older adults (ages 55–70). Controlling for pre-use scores on all measures, the THC dominant chemovar produced a greater deleterious effect in younger adults compared with older adults in tests of learning and processing speed, whereas there were no differences between old and young in the effects of the other chemovars. In addition, the young group reported greater cannabis craving than the older group after using the THC chemovar. Consistent with some reports in the preclinical literature, the findings suggest that older adults may be less sensitive to the effects of THC on cognitive and affective measures.

scholarly journals Healthy aging profile in octogenarians in Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Viana Campos ◽  
Efigênia Ferreira e Ferreira ◽  
Andréa Maria Duarte Vargas ◽  
Lúcia Hisako Takase Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Tree ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Population Based ◽  
P Value ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Monthly Income ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Socioeconomic Characteristics

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the healthy aging profile in octogenarians in Brazil. Method: this population-based epidemiological study was conducted using household interviews of 335 octogenarians in a Brazilian municipality. The decision-tree model was used to assess the healthy aging profile in relation to the socioeconomic characteristics evaluated at baseline. All of the tests used a p-value < 0.05. Results: the majority of the 335 participating older adults were women (62.1%), were aged between 80 and 84 years (50.4%), were widowed (53.4%), were illiterate (59.1%), had a monthly income of less than one minimum wage (59.1%), were retired (85.7%), lived with their spouse (63.8%), did not have a caregiver (60.3%), had two or more children (82.7%), and had two or more grandchildren (78.8%). The results indicate three age groups with a healthier aging profile: older adults aged 80 to 84 years (55.6%), older adults aged 85 years and older who are married (64.9%), and older adults aged 85 and older who do not have a partner or a caregiver (54.2%). Conclusion: the healthy aging profile of octogenarians can be explained by age group, marital status, and the presence of a caregiver.

scholarly journals Agency and communion attributes in adults’ spontaneous self-representations

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Diehl ◽  
Stephanie K. Owen ◽  
Lise M. Youngblade
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Defence Mechanisms ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Agency And Communion ◽  
Middle Aged Adults ◽  
Group Self ◽  
Age And Sex

This study investigated agency and communion attributes in adults’ spontaneous self-representations. The study sample consisted of 158 adults (80 men, 78 women) ranging in age from 20 to 88 years. Consistent with theorising, significant age and sex differences were found in terms of the number of agency and communion attributes. Young and middle-aged adults included significantly more agency attributes in their self-representations than older adults; men listed significantly more agency attributes than women. In contrast, older adults included significantly more communion attributes in their self-representations than young adults, and women listed significantly more communion attributes than men. Significant Age Group × Self-Portrait Display and Sex × Self-Portrait Display interactions were found for communion attributes, indicating that the importance of communion attributes differed across age groups and by sex. Correlational analyses showed significant associations of agency and communion attributes with personality traits and defence mechanisms. Communion attributes also showed significant correlations with four dimensions of psychological well-being.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 transmission across age groups in France and implications for control

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Tran Kiem ◽  
Paolo Bosetti ◽  
Juliette Paireau ◽  
Pascal Crépey ◽  
Henrik Salje ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Transmission Dynamics ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Targeted Intervention ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Intervention Measures ◽  
Better Than

AbstractThe shielding of older individuals has been proposed to limit COVID-19 hospitalizations while relaxing general social distancing in the absence of vaccines. Evaluating such approaches requires a deep understanding of transmission dynamics across ages. Here, we use detailed age-specific case and hospitalization data to model the rebound in the French epidemic in summer 2020, characterize age-specific transmission dynamics and critically evaluate different age-targeted intervention measures in the absence of vaccines. We find that while the rebound started in young adults, it reached individuals aged ≥80 y.o. after 4 weeks, despite substantial contact reductions, indicating substantial transmission flows across ages. We derive the contribution of each age group to transmission. While shielding older individuals reduces mortality, it is insufficient to allow major relaxations of social distancing. When the epidemic remains manageable (R close to 1), targeting those most contributing to transmission is better than shielding at-risk individuals. Pandemic control requires an effort from all age groups.

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