scholarly journals Frequency and Strategicness of Clock-Checking Explain Detrimental Age-Effects in Time-Based Prospective Memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Joly-Burra ◽  
Maximilian Haas ◽  
Gianvito Laera ◽  
Paolo Ghisletta ◽  
Matthias Kliegel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Age Effect ◽  
Specific Time ◽  
Target Time ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Respective Contribution ◽  
Age Range

Previous studies report that checking a clock either frequently or strategically (immediately before a target-time) improves the likelihood of remembering to perform a planned intention at a specific time (time-based prospective memory, TBPM). To disentangle the respective contribution of frequent vs. strategic clock-checking to age-related decrease in TBPM performance, we propose a new, more fine-grained indicator of strategicness. Together, both aspects of clock-checking fully mediated the negative age effect on TBPM performance and explained 54.6% of the variance of TBPM performance in an adult lifespan sample (N=221, age-range = 19-86), thereby providing avenues of intervention for improving older adults’ TBPM.

scholarly journals Older Adults and Technology Use: A Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 823-823
Author(s):  
Hyung Wook Choi ◽  
Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili ◽  
Mat Kelly ◽  
Alexander Poole ◽  
Erjia Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sample Population ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Smart Technologies ◽  
Age Range

Abstract Researchers are increasingly interested in leveraging technology to support the physical and mental well-being of older adults. We systematically reviewed previous scholars’ criteria for sampling older adult populations, focusing on age cohorts (namely adults over 65) and their use of internet and smart technologies. We iteratively developed keyword combinations that represent older adults and technology from the retrieved literature. Between 2011 and 2020, 70 systematic reviews were identified, 26 of which met our inclusion criteria for full review. Most important, not one of the 26 papers used a sample population classification more fine-grained than “65 and older.” A knowledge gap thus exists; researchers lack a nuanced understanding of differences within this extraordinarily broad age-range. Demographics that we propose to analyze empirically include not only finer measures of age (e.g., 65-70 or 71-75, as opposed to “65 and older”), but also those age groups’ attitudes toward and capacity for technology use.

Goal disengagement capacities and severity of disease across older adulthood

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle Jobin ◽  
Carsten Wrosch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Goal Disengagement ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Early Old Age

This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 to 90). Regression analyses showed that goal disengagement capacities buffered 6-year increases in older adults’ cold symptoms, and that this effect was significantly pronounced among older-old participants. Mediation analyses further indicated that changes in depressive symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the age-related association between goal disengagement and changes in cold symptoms. The study’s findings suggest that goal disengagement capacities become increasingly important for protecting emotional well-being and physical health as older adults advance in age.

scholarly journals Neurometabolic Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Motor Inhibition in Young and Older Adults: Evidence from Multiple Regional 1H-MR Spectroscopy

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akila Weerasekera ◽  
Oron Levin ◽  
Amanda Clauwaert ◽  
Kirstin-Friederike Heise ◽  
Lize Hermans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Proactive Inhibition ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Reactive Inhibition ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Right ◽  
Age Range

Abstract Suboptimal inhibitory control is a major factor contributing to motor/cognitive deficits in older age and pathology. Here, we provide novel insights into the neurochemical biomarkers of inhibitory control in healthy young and older adults and highlight putative neurometabolic correlates of deficient inhibitory functions in normal aging. Age-related alterations in levels of glutamate–glutamine complex (Glx), N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), and myo-inositol (mIns) were assessed in the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), bilateral sensorimotor cortex (SM1), bilateral striatum (STR), and occipital cortex (OCC) with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Data were collected from 30 young (age range 18–34 years) and 29 older (age range 60–74 years) adults. Associations between age-related changes in the levels of these metabolites and performance measures or reactive/proactive inhibition were examined for each age group. Glx levels in the right striatum and preSMA were associated with more efficient proactive inhibition in young adults but were not predictive for reactive inhibition performance. Higher NAA/mIns ratios in the preSMA and RIFG and lower mIns levels in the OCC were associated with better deployment of proactive and reactive inhibition in older adults. Overall, these findings suggest that altered regional concentrations of NAA and mIns constitute potential biomarkers of suboptimal inhibitory control in aging.

Episodic Future Thinking and Cognitive Aging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Schacter ◽  
Aleea L. Devitt ◽  
Donna Rose Addis
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Episodic Future Thinking ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Prosocial Intentions ◽  
Age Related Changes

Episodic future thinking refers to the ability to imagine or simulate experiences that might occur in an individual’s personal future. It has been known for decades that cognitive aging is associated with declines in episodic memory, and recent research has documented correlated age-related declines in episodic future thinking. Previous research has considered both cognitive and neural mechanisms that are responsible for age-related changes in episodic future thinking, as well as effects of aging on the functions served by episodic future thinking. Studies concerned with mechanism indicate that multiple cognitive mechanisms contribute to changes in episodic future thinking during aging, including episodic memory retrieval, narrative style, and executive processes. Recent studies using an episodic specificity induction—brief training in recollecting episodic details of a recent experience—have proven useful in separating the contributions of episodic retrieval from other non-episodic processes during future thinking tasks in both old and young adults. Neuroimaging studies provide preliminary evidence of a role for age-related changes in default and executive brain networks in episodic future thinking and autobiographical planning. Studies concerned with function have examined age-related effects on the link between episodic future thinking and a variety of processes, including everyday problem-solving, prospective memory, prosocial intentions, and intertemporal choice/delay discounting. The general finding in these studies is for age-related reductions, consistent with the work on mechanisms that consistently reveals reduced episodic detail in older adults when they imagine future events. However, several studies have revealed that episodic simulation nonetheless confers some benefits for tasks tapping adaptive functions in older adults, such as problem-solving, prospective memory, and prosocial intentions, even though age-related deficits on these tasks are not eliminated or reduced by episodic future thinking.

Only social feedback reduces age-related prospective memory deficits in “Virtual Week”

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 759-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Niedźwieńska ◽  
Peter G. Rendell ◽  
Krystian Barzykowski ◽  
Alicja Leszczyńska
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Feedback Group ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Memory For Intentions

ABSTRACTBackground:Prospective memory, or remembering to do things in the future, is crucial for independent living in old age. Although there is evidence of substantial age-related deficits in memory for intentions, older adults have demonstrated the ability to compensate for their deficits in everyday life. The present study investigated feedback as a strategy for facilitating prospective memory in the elderly.Method:Young and older adults played a computer-based task, Virtual Week, in which they had to remember to carry out life-like intentions. After each virtual day, specific feedback on prospective memory performance was automatically provided on the computer screen that participants either proceeded through by themselves (non-social feedback) or were taken through by an experimenter (social feedback). The control group received no feedback.Results:We found that, compared with no-feedback group, only social feedback substantially reduced the age-related deficit in prospective memory. Older adults significantly benefited from feedback provided by the experimenter on the tasks of intermediate difficulty. Unexpectedly, prospective memory with non-social feedback was not only worse than with social feedback, but it was not any better than without any feedback at all.Conclusions:The results extended previous findings on the effectiveness of feedback in improving the memory performance of older adults to include memory for intentions. Despite the feedback meeting the critical recommendations of being specific, objective, and well-targeted, it was ineffective when the feedback displayed on the computer was not introduced by the experimenter. This has implications for computerized training tasks where automated feedback is considered crucial.

scholarly journals Does Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD) in motor cortex reflect compensation?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Knights ◽  
Alexa Morcom ◽  
Richard N Henson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Neural Efficiency

Older adults tend to display greater brain activation in the non-dominant hemisphere during even basic sensorimotor responses. It is debated whether this Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD) reflects a compensatory mechanism. Across two independent fMRI experiments involving an adult-lifespan human sample (N = 586 and N = 81; approximately half female) who performed right hand finger responses, we distinguished between these hypotheses using behavioural and multivariate Bayes (MVB) decoding approaches. Standard univariate analyses replicated a HAROLD pattern in motor cortex, but in- and out-of-scanner behavioural results both demonstrated evidence against a compensatory relationship, in that reaction time measures of task performance in older adults did not relate to ipsilateral motor activity. Likewise, MVB showed that this increased ipsilateral activity in older adults did not carry additional information, and if anything, combining ipsilateral with contralateral activity patterns reduced action decoding in older adults (at least in Experiment 1). These results contradict the hypothesis that HAROLD is compensatory, and instead suggest that the age-related, ipsilateral hyper-activation is non-specific, in line with alternative hypotheses about age-related reductions in neural efficiency/differentiation or inter-hemispheric inhibition.

scholarly journals A-028 Utilizing Virtual Reality to Assess the Relationship between Prospective Memory and Processing Speed

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 818-818
Author(s):  
Sawyer J ◽  
Barnett M ◽  
Bennett L ◽  
Donnell R ◽  
Flair A ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Adult Intelligence Scale ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Memory Measure ◽  
Event Based

Abstract Objective Processing speed may partially mediate age-related differences in prospective memory (PM) abilities (West & Craik, 2001). The present preliminary study aimed to further investigate the relationships between prospective memory and processing speed by utilizing a novel virtual reality-based prospective memory measure. The task was designed to assess the impacts of a virtual environment would facilitate a deeper level of processing and enhance prospective memory performance. Method 49 older adults (M = 73.87, SD = 8.24) and 39 younger adults(M = 18.87, SD =1.61) completed the Coding subtest of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS- IV) as well as a virtual-reality prospective memory measure that utilized both time-based and event-based cues. Results Coding was strongly correlated with PM time-based cues (r = .43, p < .01) and event-based cues (r = .53, p < .001). There were no correlations between processing speed and prospective memory in the young adult sample. Conclusion This study suggests that processing speed is strongly related to virtual-reality based PM and suggests that processing speed is a crucial component in prospective memory outcomes in older adults. This novel task virtual reality task may provide construct validity against other prospective memory measures.

Bad Odors Stick Better Than Good Ones

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 375-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Larsson ◽  
Christina Öberg-Blåvarg ◽  
Fredrik U. Jönsson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Olfactory Memory ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Olfactory Information ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Young Old ◽  
Better Than

The influences of perceived odor qualities on the retention of olfactory information across the adult lifespan were examined. Young (19–36 years), young-old (60–74 years), and old (75–91 years) adults (n = 202) rated a set of unfamiliar odors across a series of perceptual dimensions (i.e., pleasantness, intensity, and irritability) at encoding. The overall results indicated that memory for unpleasant olfactory information was better than that for pleasant odors across the lifespan. Also, participants showed better retention for odors perceived with high intensity and irritability than for odors rated with low or medium scores. Interestingly, the old adults showed selective beneficial memory effects for odors rated as highly irritable. To the extent that perceptions of high irritability reflect an activation of the trigeminal sensory system, this finding suggests that older adults may use trigeminal components in odor information to compensate for age-related impairments in olfactory memory.

scholarly journals Machine-Learning Analysis of Voice Samples Recorded through Smartphones: The Combined Effect of Ageing and Gender

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 5022
Author(s):  
Francesco Asci ◽  
Giovanni Costantini ◽  
Pietro Di Leo ◽  
Alessandro Zampogna ◽  
Giovanni Ruoppolo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Age Related ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Learning Analysis

Background: Experimental studies using qualitative or quantitative analysis have demonstrated that the human voice progressively worsens with ageing. These studies, however, have mostly focused on specific voice features without examining their dynamic interaction. To examine the complexity of age-related changes in voice, more advanced techniques based on machine learning have been recently applied to voice recordings but only in a laboratory setting. We here recorded voice samples in a large sample of healthy subjects. To improve the ecological value of our analysis, we collected voice samples directly at home using smartphones. Methods: 138 younger adults (65 males and 73 females, age range: 15–30) and 123 older adults (47 males and 76 females, age range: 40–85) produced a sustained emission of a vowel and a sentence. The recorded voice samples underwent a machine learning analysis through a support vector machine algorithm. Results: The machine learning analysis of voice samples from both speech tasks discriminated between younger and older adults, and between males and females, with high statistical accuracy. Conclusions: By recording voice samples through smartphones in an ecological setting, we demonstrated the combined effect of age and gender on voice. Our machine learning analysis demonstrates the effect of ageing on voice.

Age-Related Changes in Presynaptic Inhibition During Gait Initiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solival Santos Filho ◽  
Daniel Boari Coelho ◽  
Carlos Ugrinowitsch ◽  
Caroline Ribeiro de Souza ◽  
Fernando Henrique Magalhães ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Presynaptic Inhibition ◽  
Gait Initiation ◽  
Quiet Stance ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Contraction Ratio ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Age Related Changes ◽  
Presynaptic Control

Abstract Age-related changes in presynaptic inhibition (PSI) have not been observed during gait initiation, which requires anticipatory postural adjustment (APA). As APA is centrally modulated and is impaired in older compared to young adults, here we aimed to study the presynaptic control and co-contraction levels in the ankle muscles during gait initiation in older compared to young adults. Fifteen older (age range 65–80 years) and 15 young adults (age range 19–30 years) performed a gait initiation task on a force platform under 3 conditions: (i) without electrical stimulation; (ii) test Hoffman reflex (H-reflex); and (iii) conditioned H-reflex. H-reflexes were evoked on the soleus muscle when the APA amplitude exceeded 10%–20% of the average baseline mediolateral force. Participants also performed quiet stance as a control task. Results showed that both age groups presented similar PSI levels during quiet stance (p = .941), while in the gait initiation older adults presented higher PSI levels, longer duration, and lower amplitude of APA than young adults (p < .05). Older adults presented higher co-contraction ratio in both tasks than young adults (p < .05). Correlations between the PSI levels and the APA amplitude (r = −0.61, p = .008), and between the PSI levels and the co-contraction ratio during gait initiation (r = −0.64, p = .005) were found for older adults only. APA amplitude explained 49% of the variance of the PSI levels (p = .003). Our findings suggest that older compared to young adults have increased presynaptic control to compensate for the decreased supraspinal modulation on impaired APAs during gait initiation.

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