| 1. |
- de Frias, Cindy, et al.
(author)
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Sex differences in cognition are stable over a 10-year period in adulthood and old age.
- 2006
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 13:3-4, s. 574-587
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sex differences in declarative memory and visuospacial ability are robust in cross-sectional studies. The present longitudinal study examined whether sex differences in cognition were present over a 10-year period, and whether age modified the magnitude of sex differences. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory, and visuospatial ability were administered to 625 nondemented adults (initially aged 35-80 years), participating in the population based Betula study at two follow-up occasions. There was stability of sex differences across five age groups and over a 10-year period. Women performed at a higher level than men on episodic recall, face and verbal recognition, and semantic fluency, whereas men performed better than women on a task assessing visuospatial ability. Sex differences in cognitive functions are stable over a 10-year period and from 35 to 90 years of age. Decreasing levels of estrogen in women and sex differences in age-related cortical atrophy do not seem to influence cognitive sex differences.
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| 2. |
- Habib, Reza, et al.
(author)
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Cognitive and non-cognitive factors contributing to the longitudinal identification of successful older adults in the Betula study.
- 2007
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.. - Lisse : Swets & Zeitlinger. ; 14:3, s. 257-273
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies of successful aging have typically defined elderly who fall in the upper end of a distribution of test scores as successful. A different definition of successful aging requires that older adults fall at or above the mean level of younger adults and maintain this level over time. Here we examined this definition of successful aging in a sample of 1463 individuals between 50 to 85 years of age. Based on principal coordinate analysis of cognitive and non-cognitive variables, we identified a group of 55 (8.3%) 70-85 years olds that were high functioning. This group of elderly showed elevated performance on a range of cognitive tasks. Non-cognitive factors that characterized this group included education and subjective health. The participants were re-tested 5 years later and the same type of analysis was repeated. Of the remaining individuals who initially were classified as high functioning, 18 (35%) remained high functioning and thus met the definition for successful aging. Years of education was a significant predictor of who remained successful over time.
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| 3. |
- Mäntylä, Timo, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Age differences in multiple outcome measures of time-based prospective memory
- 2009
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - Oxford : Taylor and Francis Group. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 16:6, s. 708-720
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study examined time-based prospective memory performance in relation to age, monitoring strategy, response accuracy, and dual-task demands. Young, middle-aged and older adults (the passing of time every 5 min while listening to a short story (low task demands) or completing a series of cognitive tasks (high task demands). Young and older adults showed similar patterns of monitoring behavior, with low rates of clock checking during the early phase of each 5-min interval, followed by linearly accelerating monitoring functions. However, to obtain the same level of prospective memory performance older adults needed more frequent clock checks than young adults. Furthermore, older adults’ compensatory monitoring strategy was associated with an additional cost in primary task performance. Finally, increased primary task demands shifted age differences in prospective memory from monitoring frequency to response accuracy. These findings suggest that goal-directed behavior requires efficient task coordination and resource llocation, and that age-related differences in time-based prospective memory should be evaluated by using multiple outcome measures.
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| 4. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(author)
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Betula : a prospective cohort study on memory, health and aging
- 2004
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - Hove : Psychology Press. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 11:2-3, s. 134-148
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article describes the Betula Study with respect to objectives, design, participants, and assessment instruments for health and cognition. Three waves of data collection have been completed in 5-year intervals since 1988-1990. A fourth wave started in 2003 and will be completed in 2005. An overview of Betula research is presented under the headings of memory and cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Health-related issues and sex differences as well as comparisons between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are discussed in the first section. The influence of different genes and of some brain abnormalities for memory functioning in adulthood and old age constitute main topics in the second section. New data are presented on the association between blood pressure and dementia. We demonstrated that a demented group of participants had higher levels of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure than non-dementia controls 10 years before diagnosis. The new fourth wave of data collection will, in addition to enriching the Betula database, permit revisiting and reanalyzing the existing data from new perspectives.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Rönnlund, Michael, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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Cross-Sectional versus Longitudinal Age Gradients of Tower of Hanoi Performance : The Role of Practice Effects and Cohort Differences in Education
- 2007
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 15:1, s. 40-67
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We examined 5-year longitudinal changes in Tower of Hanoi (TOH) performance in a population-based sample of adults (35-85 years initially; n = 1480). An age-matched sample (n = 433) was included to estimate practice effects. The longitudinal age gradients differed substantially from the cross-sectional age gradients. This was the case even when practice effects, that were substantial in magnitude across the young/middle-aged groups, were controlled for. Instead of a continuous age-related deficit in performance from 35 and onwards, longitudinal data showed slowing of performance and increases of illegal moves past age 65. Cohort-related differences in educational attainment did not account for this discrepancy. Further analyses revealed a positive relation between practice-related gains and explicit memory of having performed the task at the first test occasion and a positive association between latent changes in TOH and Block Design, in line with cross-sectional findings. In conclusion, the results demonstrate a pattern of age-related changes indicating a late-onset decline of TOH performance and underscore the need to control for retest effects in longitudinal aging research.
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| 7. |
- Yonker, Julie E, et al.
(author)
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Verified hormone therapy improves episodic memory performance in healthy postmenopausal women.
- 2006
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In: Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition. - Hove : Informa UK Limited. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 13:3-4, s. 291-307
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies of hormone therapy (HT) and cognition have yielded conflicting results. The aim of this observational study was to examine the effect of estradiol, via serum verified HT (estradiol, estriol, progesterone) and endogenous estradiol, on 108 healthy postmenopausal women's cognitive performance. The results demonstrated that the 43 HT-users performed at a significantly higher level than non-users on episodic memory tasks and on a verbal fluency task, whereas HT-users and non-users did not differ on tasks assessing semantic memory and spatial visualization. In addition, there was a positive relationship between serum estradiol level and episodic memory performance, indicating that postmenopausal HT is associated with enhanced episodic memory and verbal fluency, independent of age and education. These observational results suggest that HT use may be sufficient to exert small, yet positive effects on female sensitive cognitive tasks. Hormone therapy compliance and formulation is discussed as confounding factors in previous research.
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| 8. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(author)
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Cognitive test battery of CASCADE : Tasks and data.
- 2005
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In: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - 1382-5585. ; 12:1, s. 32-56
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents the cognitive test battery used in the CASCADE Study (Cardiovascular Determinants of Dementia) for examining the consequences of cerebral white matter lesions and atrophy. The test battery includes nine different tasks assessing memory, executive function, and global cognitive function. Three episodic memory tasks were used in combinations to assess the role of attention and speed on encoding. Estimates of short- and long-term memory capacity were also derived from these three memory tasks. Semantic memory production / frontal lobe functions were assessed by means of a word fluency test. The Letter Digit Substitution test and the Stroop test were used to assess speed of processing and attention. Motor speed was measured with the Purdue Pegboard test, and global cognitive function was assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination. Overall performance data for the whole CASCADE sample and for each of eight study centers are presented for each test. Possible reasons for performance differences among study centers are discussed.
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