Processing speed and visuospatial executive function predict visual working memory ability in older adults

Characterising and differentiating cognitive and motor speed in older adults: structural equation modelling on a UK longitudinal birth cohort

OBJECTIVES

Information processing speed (IPS) has been proposed to be a key component in healthy ageing and cognitive functioning. Yet, current studies lack a consistent definition and specific influential characteristics. This study aimed to investigate IPS as a multifaceted concept by differentiating cognitive and motor IPS.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

A retrospective data analysis using data from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development (a population-based cohort of UK adults born in 1946) at childhood (ages 8, 11 and 15) and adulthood (ages 60-64 and 68-70). Using structural equation modelling, we constructed two models of IPS with 2124 and 1776 participants, respectively.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Measures of interest included IPS (ie, letter cancellation, simple and choice reaction time), intelligence (ie, childhood intelligence and National Adult Reading Test), verbal memory, socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive functions measured by the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III, as well as a variety of health indexes.

RESULTS

We found distinct predictors for cognitive and motor IPS and how they relate to other cognitive functions in old age. In our first model, SES and antipsychotic medication usage emerged as significant predictors for cognitive IPS, intelligence and smoking as predictors for motor IPS while both share sex, memory and antiepileptic medication usage as common predictors. Notably, all differences between both IPS types ran in the same direction except for sex differences, with women performing better than men in cognitive IPS and vice versa in motor IPS. The second model showed that both IPS measures, as well as intelligence, memory, antipsychotic and sedative medication usage, explain cognitive functions later in life.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, these results shed further light on IPS as a whole by showing there are distinct types and that these measures directly relate to other cognitive functions.

Skills and cautiousness predict performance in difficult search

People differ in how well they search. What are the factors that might contribute to this variability? We tested the contribution of two cognitive abilities: visual working memory (VWM) capacity and object recognition ability. Participants completed three tasks: a difficult inefficient visual search task, where they searched for a target letter T among skewed L distractors; a VWM task, where they memorized a color array and then identified whether a probed color belonged to the previous array; and the Novel Object Memory Test (NOMT), where they learnt complex novel objects and then identified them amongst objects that closely resembled them. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that there are two latent factors that explain the shared variance among these three tasks: a factor indicative of the level of caution participants exercised during the challenging visual search task, and a factor representing their visual cognitive abilities. People who score high on the search cautiousness tend to perform a more accurate but slower search. People who score high on the visual cognitive ability factor tend to have a higher VWM capacity, a better object recognition ability, and a faster search speed. The results reflect two points: (1) Visual search tasks share components with visual working memory and object recognition tasks. (2) Search performance is influenced not only by the search display's properties but also by individual predispositions such as caution and general visual abilities. This study introduces new factors for consideration when interpreting variations in visual search behaviors.

Harnessing the frontal aslant tract's structure to assess its involvement in cognitive functions: new insights from 7-T diffusion imaging

The first therapeutical goal followed by neurooncological surgeons dealing with prefrontal gliomas is attempting supramarginal tumor resection preserving relevant neurological function. Therefore, advanced knowledge of the frontal aslant tract (FAT) functional neuroanatomy in high-order cognitive domains beyond language and speech processing would help refine neurosurgeries, predicting possible relevant cognitive adverse events and maximizing the surgical efficacy. To this aim we performed the recently developed correlational tractography analyses to evaluate the possible relationship between FAT's microstructural properties and cognitive functions in 27 healthy subjects having ultra-high-field (7-Tesla) diffusion MRI. We independently assessed FAT segments innervating the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (dlPFC-FAT) and the supplementary motor area (SMA-FAT). FAT microstructural robustness, measured by the tract's quantitative anisotropy (QA), was associated with a better performance in episodic memory, visuospatial orientation, cognitive processing speed and fluid intelligence but not sustained selective attention tests. Overall, the percentual tract volume showing an association between QA-index and improved cognitive scores (pQACV) was higher in the SMA-FAT compared to the dlPFC-FAT segment. This effect was right-lateralized for verbal episodic memory and fluid intelligence and bilateralized for visuospatial orientation and cognitive processing speed. Our results provide novel evidence for a functional specialization of the FAT beyond the known in language and speech processing, particularly its involvement in several higher-order cognitive domains. In light of these findings, further research should be encouraged to focus on neurocognitive deficits and their impact on patient outcomes after FAT damage, especially in the context of glioma surgery.

Age moderates associations between dementia worry and subjective cognition

The present study assessed whether dementia worry is associated with adults' subjective cognitive difficulties, and whether any associations are moderated by age. Participants were 477 adults aged 18-90 years. They completed standard, subjective measures of dementia worry and everyday cognitive difficulties (i.e. attention, language, verbal and visual-spatial memory, and visual-perceptual ability). Moderated regression analyses included dementia worry as a predictor of specific cognitive difficulties, and age as a moderator. Covariates included gender, trait cognitive and somatic anxiety, general aging-related anxiety, depression, stress, mental health treatment status, and health status. Greater overall dementia worry, and specifically more frequent dementia worry, were both associated with greater attentional difficulty in middle-aged and older adults, but not in young adults. Cognitions about developing dementia in reaction to memory lapses were also associated with greater cognitive difficulties across the adult lifespan for multiple cognitive domains. Results highlight a robust relationship between dementia worry and subjective attentional difficulties, especially in middle-aged and older adults. Worry frequency is also more influential with adult aging. A cognitive or meta-cognitive mechanism may underlie subjective cognitive concerns across the adult lifespan.

Development of a real-world simulated instrument for evaluating visuospatial working memory: a preliminary psychometric study on older adults

BACKGROUND

A prevalent challenge in neuropsychological assessment, particularly when utilizing instruments designed for controlled laboratory environments, is that the outcomes may not correspond to an individual's real-life status. Accordingly, assessments of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) conducted in such settings might fail to capture certain facets of this function, as it operates in real life. On the other hand, entirely ecological assessments may risk compromising internal validity. This study aimed to develop an intermediate mode of assessment that measures VSWM in older adults by employing a setting, a task, and a response format that aligns closely with both laboratory and ecological assessments. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation was carried out to study the variations in spatial cognition among different demographic groups.

METHODS

In a two-session study, 77 healthy older adults, eight patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and seven patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were recruited to complete the wayfinding questionnaire (WQ), the Corsi block-tapping task (CBTT), and the Spatial Memory Table (SMT). The SMT is a novel instrument developed specifically for this study, aiming to provide a more accurate measure of VSWM performance in older adults' everyday life. Test-retest and split-half reliabilities, as well as the face, content, concurrent, convergent, and known-groups validities, were analyzed to investigate the psychometric properties of the SMT.

RESULTS

The analyses were mainly centered on studying the psychometric properties of the SMT. Test-retest reliability (r = .753, p < .001) and split-half reliability (ρSC = 0.747) were found to be acceptable. Concurrent validity using CBTT (r = .264, p = .021), convergent validity using WQ subscales (navigation and orientation: r = .282, p = .014; distance estimation: r = .261, p = .024), and known-groups validity using the SMT scores among people with MCI and AD (χ2 = 35.194, df = 2, p < .001) were also indicative of the instrument's good validity. Data analysis also revealed acceptable levels of face validity (U = 4.50; p = .095) and content validity (CVR ≥ 0.60). As a result of comparing VSWM and wayfinding variables across genders and education levels, a significant difference was observed for navigation and orientation and spatial anxiety between women and men (p < .05). None of the variables were different among education levels.

CONCLUSION

The SMT was found to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring VSWM performance in older adults. Given these findings, the SMT can be regarded as a measure that sufficiently approximates both laboratory and real-life demands for VSWM. Additionally, the instrument demonstrated a preliminary acceptable capacity to differentiate between healthy individuals and those with MCI and AD.

Can Brief Listening to Mozart's Music Improve Visual Working Memory? An Update on the Role of Cognitive and Emotional Factors

The aim of this research was to enhance understanding of the relationship between brief music listening and working memory (WM) functions. The study extends a previous large-scale experiment in which the effects of brief exposure to music on verbal WM were explored. In the present second phase of the experiment, these effects were assessed for the visuospatial subcomponent of WM. For that aim, visuospatial WM was measured using the Corsi blocks task-backwards and Visual Patterns Test in a large sample of 311 young and older adults after being exposed to musical excerpts coming from different music composers (Mozart, Vivaldi, Glass). To account for possible effects of arousal, a silence condition was used. Individual preference for music excerpts and emotional reactions to each condition were also subjectively rated using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to account for the role of emotional reactions in shaping subsequent cognitive performance. Results showed that music affected the visuospatial sketchpad of WM. In line with the previously described Mozart effect, only Mozart's music had a significant positive impact on visuospatial WM in the two age groups, regardless of preferences, and on overall age-related WM decline in older adults. The Mozart effect was more prominent for the VPT than the Corsi task and was also expressed for the prevailing positive effect. These observations are in contrast to the selective influence of Vivaldi's music on verbal WM that was detected in our first study. Together, the results demonstrate a differential music influence on the phonological loop and on the visuospatial sketchpad. They thus contribute to the debate of whether music has the potential to affect distinct processes within working memory in an excerpt- or composer-specific manner. Also, they suggest that emotional activation and central executive attention are essentially involved in modulating the influence of music on subsequent cognition. These findings can assist in the selection of music excerpts used in cognitive rehabilitation programs that focus on visuospatial skills.

The impact of perceptual complexity on road crossing decisions in younger and older adults

Cognitive abilities decline with healthy ageing which can have a critical impact on day-to-day activities. One example is road crossing where older adults (OAs) disproportionally fall victim to pedestrian accidents. The current research examined two virtual reality experiments that investigated how the complexity of the road crossing situation impacts OAs (N = 19, ages 65-85) and younger adults (YAs, N = 34, ages 18-24) with a range of executive functioning abilities (EFs). Overall, we found that OAs were able to make safe crossing decisions, and were more cautious than YAs. This continued to be the case in high cognitive load situations. In these situations, safe decisions were associated with an increase in head movements for participants with poorer attention switching than participants with better attention switching suggesting these groups developed compensation strategies to continue to make safe decisions. In situations where participants had less time to make a crossing decision all participants had difficulties making safe crossing decisions which was amplified for OAs and participants with poorer EFs. Our findings suggest more effort should be taken to ensure that road crossing points are clear of visual obstructions and more speed limits should be placed around retirement or care homes, neither of which are legislated for in the UK and Australia.

Differential working memory function between phonological and visuospatial strategies: a magnetoencephalography study using a same visual task

Previous studies have reported that, in working memory, the processing of visuospatial information and phonological information have different neural bases. However, in these studies, memory items were presented via different modalities. Therefore, the modality in which the memory items were presented and the strategy for memorizing them were not rigorously distinguished. In the present study, we explored the neural basis of two working memory strategies. Nineteen right-handed young adults memorized seven sequential directions presented visually in a task in which the memory strategy was either visuospatial or phonological (visuospatial/phonological condition). Source amplitudes of theta-band (5-7 Hz) rhythm were estimated from magnetoencephalography during the maintenance period and further analyzed using cluster-based permutation tests. Behavioral results revealed that the accuracy rates showed no significant differences between conditions, while the reaction time in the phonological condition was significantly longer than that in the visuospatial condition. Theta activity in the phonological condition was significantly greater than that in the visuospatial condition, and the cluster in spatio-temporal matrix with p < 5% difference extended to right prefrontal regions in the early maintenance period and right occipito-parietal regions in the late maintenance period. The theta activity results did not indicate strategy-specific neural bases but did reveal the dynamics of executive function required for phonological processing. The functions seemed to move from attention control and inhibition control in the prefrontal region to inhibition of irrelevant information in the occipito-parietal region.

The functional relevance of visuospatial processing speed across the lifespan

Visuospatial processing speed underlies several cognitive functions critical for successful completion of everyday tasks, including driving and walking. While it is widely accepted that visuospatial processing speed peaks in early adulthood, performance across the lifespan remains incompletely characterized. Additionally, there remains a lack of paradigms available to assess visuospatial processing speed in unsupervised web-based testing environments. To address these gaps, we developed a novel visuospatial processing speed (VIPS) task adapted from two tests sensitive to visuospatial processing speed declines in older adults, the Useful Field of View paradigm and the PERformance CEntered Portable Test. The VIPS task requires participants to make a central orientation discrimination and complete a simultaneous peripheral visual search task. Data were collected from 86 in-lab volunteers (18-30 years) to compare performance to traditional neuropsychological measures. Consistent with previous literature, performance on the novel VIPS task significantly correlated with measures of selective attention, executive functioning, visual speed, and working memory. An additional 4395 volunteers (12-62 years) were recruited on TestMyBrain.org to establish lifespan trajectories of visuospatial processing speed and associations with functional disability. VIPS task performance peaked in the early 20's, and steadily decreased such that thresholds doubled in 60-year-olds relative to 20-year-olds (817 ms vs. 412 ms). VIPS task performance significantly correlated with self-reported cognitive functioning deficits broadly across the lifespan but was specifically related to mobility issues in middle-age. These findings have important implications for early detection of cognitive decline and provide insights into potential early intervention targets for younger and middle-aged adults.

Autistic traits are associated with enhanced working memory capacity for abstract visual stimuli

We tested whether the association between autistic traits and enhanced performance in visual-perceptual tasks extends to visual working memory capacity. We predicted that any positive effect of autistic traits on visual working memory performance would be greatest during domain-specific tasks, in which visual resources must be relied upon. We used a visual 'matrix' task, involving recall of black-and-white chequered patterns which increased in size, to establish participants' capacity (span). We assessed 144 young adults' (M = 22.0 years, SD = 2.5) performance on abstract, 'low semantic' versus 'high semantic' task versions. The latter offered multimodal coding due to the availability of long-term memory resources that could supplement visual working memory. Participants also completed measures of autistic traits and trait anxiety. Autistic traits, especially Attention to Detail, Attention Switching, and Communication, positively predicted visual working memory capacity, specifically in the low semantic task, which relies on visual working memory resources. Autistic traits are therefore associated with enhanced processing and recall of visual information. The benefit is removed, however, when multimodal coding may be incorporated, emphasising the visual nature of the benefit. Strengths in focused attention to detail therefore appear to benefit domain-specific visual working memory task performance.

Are sex differences in self-estimated intelligence an elusive phenomenon? Exploring the role of working memory, creativity, and other psychological correlates in young and older adults

BACKGROUND

Although there is research examining the demographic predictors of self-estimated intelligence (SEI) in young adults, so far SEI in old age is little investigated. This study aims to examine the influence of additional variables such as self-estimated emotional intelligence (SEEQ), physical attractiveness, health, general optimism, religiousness, and working memory (WM) on SEI both in young and older adults.

METHODS

A total of 159 young (90 women, M_age  = 28.77, SD = 8.83) and 152 older adults (93 women, M_age  = 71.92, SD = 6.84) completed a measure of SEI as well as questions regarding the abovementioned variables. Given that WM is considered a very strong predictor of intelligence, neuropsychological assessment included the measurement of WM and phonologically cued semantic retrieval-verbal storage and processing in WM, as assessed by the Digit Span Forward and Verbal Fluency Task. The visual storage in WM was assessed with a variation of the Visual Patterns Test, and the visual storage and processing in WM with the Corsi blocks task (backward). Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X) was also administered as a possible influence on cognitive performance and SEI.

RESULTS

Young males rated their intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ) higher than young females. This was not confirmed for older adults, for which surprisingly the reversed pattern was found. Older women reported higher IQ and EQ than older men. Correlations showed for all participants that the higher they rated their IQ, the higher their ratings of EQ, physical attractiveness, health, and religiousness. No significant correlations between objective tests regarding WM and SEI were found, supporting SEI overestimations. Age, sex, physical attractiveness, and SEEQ were significant predictors of SEI.

DISCUSSION

For the first time, a reverse sex difference across age groups in SEI is found. Implications for individuals and healthcare professionals involved in assessment are suggested.

Virtual Reality-based Cognitive Intervention for Enhancing Executive Functions in Community-dwelling Older Adults

With the rapid growth of the older population globally, it is anticipated that age-related cognitive decline in the prodromal phase and more severe pathological decline will increase. Moreover, currently, no effective treatment options for the disease exist. Thus, early and timely prevention actions are promising and prior strategies to preserve cognitive functions by preventing symptomatology from increasing the age-related deterioration of the functions in healthy older adults. This study aims to develop the virtual reality-based cognitive intervention for enhancing executive functions (EFs) and examine the EFs after training with the virtual reality-based cognitive intervention in community-dwelling older adults. Following inclusion/exclusion criteria, 60 community-dwelling older adults aged 60-69 years were involved in the study and randomly divided into passive control and experimental groups. Eight 60 min virtual reality-based cognitive intervention sessions were held twice a week and lasted for 1 month. The EFs (i.e., inhibition, updating, and shifting) of the participants were assessed by using standardized computerized tasks, i.e., Go/NoGo, forward and backward digit span, and Berg's card sorting tasks. Additionally, a repeated-measure ANCOVA and effect sizes were applied to investigate the effects of the developed intervention. The virtual reality-based intervention significantly improved the EFs of older adults in the experimental group. Specifically, the magnitudes of enhancement were observed for inhibitory as indexed by the response time, F(1) = 6.95, p < .05, η_p² = .11, updating as represented by the memory span, F(1) = 12.09, p < .01, η_p² = .18, and the response time, F(1) = 4.46, p = .04, η_p² = .07, and shifting abilities as indexed by the percentage of correct responses, F(1) = 5.30, p = .03, η_p² = .09, respectively. The results indicated that the simultaneous combined cognitive-motor control as embedded in the virtual-based intervention is safe and effective in enhancing EFs in older adults without cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, further studies are required to investigate the benefits of these enhancements to motor functions and emotional aspects relating to daily living and the well-being of older populations in communities.

Sources of Cognitive Conflict and Their Relevance to Theory-of-Mind Proficiency in Healthy Aging: A Preregistered Study

Age-related decline in theory of mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about other individuals' mental states. We assessed how older (n = 50) and younger (n = 50) adults were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing self-other perspectives, competing cued locations, and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when people are representing a belief incongruent with their own. Individual differences in attention and response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through incompatible self-other perspectives. However, older adults were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated older adults' ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.

Adult Aging Moderates the Relationship Between Trait Cognitive Anxiety and Subjective Everyday Cognitive Difficulties

The present aim was to determine, across the adult lifespan, the extent to which different dimensions of trait anxiety might affect subjective cognitive difficulties in everyday life. Following Attentional Control Theory (ACT; Eysenck et al., 2007), we predicted that trait anxiety would have a greater effect on attention and verbal abilities than on visual abilities. We also expected trait cognitive anxiety to exhibit more robust relationships with cognition than trait somatic anxiety. Importantly, we predicted that effects of anxiety would be greater in older adults, in line with the Strength and Vulnerability Integration model (SAVI; Charles, 2010). The sample comprised 286 United Kingdom-based adults aged 18–93 years. Participants completed self-report measures of trait cognitive and somatic anxiety (the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety; STICSA, Ree et al., 2008) and everyday cognitive difficulties (the Multiple Abilities Self-Report Questionnaire; MASQ, Seidenberg et al., 1994). Moderated regression models were constructed, including trait cognitive or somatic anxiety as a predictor of cognitive difficulties, and age as the moderator variable. Covariates included depression, stress (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales—short form; DASS-21, Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), gender, current mental health treatment status, and physical health status. When cognitive anxiety was the predictor variable, somatic anxiety was also included as a covariate, and vice-versa. Trait cognitive anxiety and age interacted to predict all MASQ subscales other than visual-perceptual ability. Difficulties with attention, verbal memory, and language abilities were significantly greater at higher levels of anxiety for all age groups, with the effect greatest in older adults. Difficulties with visual-spatial memory were significantly greater at higher levels of anxiety in middle-aged and older adults only. Higher trait somatic anxiety predicted difficulties with verbal memory and language ability independently of age, and interacted with age to predict language difficulties. Interestingly, age also significantly predicted less subjective difficulty with attention, independently of anxiety level. The results show that trait cognitive and somatic anxiety are both related to subjective, everyday cognitive difficulties. However, effects of trait cognitive anxiety are more robust across cognitive domains and tend to increase, or first appear, over the course of the adult lifespan.

Performance on the processing portion of complex working memory span tasks is related to working memory capacity estimates

Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) have long been known to relate to performance in domains outside of WM, including attentional control, long-term memory, problem-solving, and fluid intelligence to name a few. Complex span WM tasks, composed of a processing component and a storage component, are often used to index WMC in these types of investigations. Capacity estimates are derived from performance on the storage component only, while processing performance is often largely ignored. Here, we explore the relationship between processing performance and WMC in a large dataset for each of three complex span tasks to better characterize how the components of these tasks might be related. We provide evidence that enforcing an 85% or better accuracy criterion for the processing portion of the task results in the removal of a disproportionate number of individuals exhibiting lower WMC estimates. We also find broad support for differences in processing task performance, characterized according to both accuracy and reaction time metrics, as a function of WMC. We suggest that researchers may want to include processing task performance measures, in addition to capacity estimates, in studies using complex span tasks to index WMC. This approach may better characterize the relationships between complex span task performance and performance in disparate domains of cognition.

Within-person increase in pathological worry predicts future depletion of unique executive functioning domains

BACKGROUND

Affective neuroscience and scar theories propose that increased excessive worry, the hallmark symptom of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), predicts future declines in executive functioning (EF). However, the preponderance of cross-sectional designs used to examine between-person chronic worry-EF relationships has blocked progress on understanding their potentially causal within-person associations. Accordingly, this study used bivariate dual latent change score (LCS) models to test whether within-person increased GAD severity might relate to future reduced EF.

METHODS

Community-dwelling adults (N = 2581, 46 years on average, s.d. = 11.40, 54.71% female) were assessed for GAD symptom severity (Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form) across three waves, spaced about 9 years apart. Three aspects of EF [inhibition, set-shifting, and mixing costs (MCs; a measure related to common EF)], were assessed with stop-and-go switch tasks. Participants responded to 20 normal and 20 reverse single-task block trials and 32 mixed-task switch block trials. EF tests were administered at time 2 (T2) and time 3 (T3), but not at time 1 (T1).

RESULTS

After controlling for T1 depression, LCS models revealed that within-person increased T1 - T2 GAD severity substantially predicted future reduced T2 - T3 inhibition and set-shifting (both indexed by accuracy and latency), and MC (indexed by latency) with moderate-to-large effect sizes (|d| = 0.51-0.96).

CONCLUSIONS

Results largely support scar theories by offering preliminary within-person, naturalistic evidence that heightened excessive worry can negatively predict future distinct aspects of cognitive flexibility. Effectively targeting pathological worry might prevent difficulties arising from executive dysfunction.

Aged rhesus monkeys: Cognitive performance categorizations and preclinical drug testing

Rodent models have facilitated major discoveries in neurobiology, however, the low success rate of novel medications in clinical trials have led to questions about their translational value in neuropsychiatric drug development research. For age-related disorders of cognition such as Alzheimer' disease (AD) there is interest in moving beyond transgenic amyloid-β and/or tau-expressing rodent models and focusing more on natural aging and dissociating "healthy" from "pathological" aging to identify new therapeutic targets and treatments. In complex disorders such as AD, it can also be argued that animals with closer neurobiology to humans (e.g., nonhuman primates) should be employed more often particularly in the later phases of drug development. The purpose of the work described here was to evaluate the cognitive capabilities of rhesus monkeys across a wide range of ages in different delayed response tasks, a computerized delayed match to sample (DMTS) task and a manual delayed match to position (DMTP) task. Based on specific performance criteria and comparisons to younger subjects, the older subjects were generally less proficient, however, some performed as well as young subjects, while other aged subjects were markedly impaired. Accordingly, the older subjects could be categorized as aged "cognitively-unimpaired" or aged "cognitively-impaired" with a third group (aged-other) falling in between. Finally, as a proof of principle, we demonstrated using the DMTP task that aged cognitively-impaired monkeys are sensitive to the pro-cognitive effects of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) partial agonist, encenicline, suggesting that nAChR ligands remain viable as potential treatments for age-related disorders of cognition.

Predicting visual working memory with multimodal magnetic resonance imaging

The indispensability of visual working memory (VWM) in human daily life suggests its importance in higher cognitive functions and neurological diseases. However, despite the extensive research efforts, most findings on the neural basis of VWM are limited to a unimodal context (either structure or function) and have low generalization. To address the above issues, this study proposed the usage of multimodal neuroimaging in combination with machine learning to reveal the neural mechanism of VWM across a large cohort (N = 547). Specifically, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging features extracted from voxel-wise amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, gray matter volume, and fractional anisotropy were used to build an individual VWM capacity prediction model through a machine learning pipeline, including the steps of feature selection, relevance vector regression, cross-validation, and model fusion. The resulting model exhibited promising predictive performance on VWM (r = .402, p < .001), and identified features within the subcortical-cerebellum network, default mode network, motor network, corpus callosum, anterior corona radiata, and external capsule as significant predictors. The main results were then compared with those obtained on emotional regulation and fluid intelligence using the same pipeline, confirming the specificity of our findings. Moreover, the main results maintained well under different cross-validation regimes and preprocess strategies. These findings, while providing richer evidence for the importance of multimodality in understanding cognitive functions, offer a solid and general foundation for comprehensively understanding the VWM process from the top down.

Predicting Academic Achievement with Cognitive Abilities: Cross-Sectional Study across School Education

The relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement across schooling from the first to the eleventh grade was analyzed. Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, number sense, and fluid intelligence were considered predictors of general academic achievement, which was derived from grades in mathematics, language, and biology. This cross-sectional study involved 1560 pupils who were in grades 1-11 at general education schools and were aged from 6.8 to 19.1 years (50.4% were boys). Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, and number sense were measured using the Choice Reaction Time, Corsi Block-Tapping, and Number Sense computerized tests, respectively. Fluid intelligence was measured using the paper-and-pencil version of the Standard Progressive Matrices test. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were carried out. It was shown that it is possible to describe the structure of the relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement for all levels of schooling with a single model. In this model, information processing speed is the key predictor of fluid intelligence, working memory, and number sense, which in turn contribute to individual differences in academic success. Additionally, the specificity of the relationship between individual indicators of cognitive abilities and academic achievement at each level of schooling was revealed.

Strategic prioritisation enhances young and older adults' visual feature binding in working memory

Visual working memory for features and bindings is susceptible to age-related decline. Two experiments were used to examine whether older adults are able to strategically prioritise more valuable information in working memory and whether this could reduce age-related impairments. Younger (18–33 years) and older (60–90 years) adults were presented with coloured shapes and, following a brief delay, asked to recall the feature that had accompanied the probe item. In Experiment 1, participants were either asked to prioritise a more valuable object in the array (serial position 1, 2, or 3) or to treat them all equally. Older adults exhibited worse overall memory performance but were as able as younger adults to prioritise objects. In both groups, this ability was particularly apparent at the middle serial position. Experiment 2 then explored whether younger and older adults’ prioritisation is affected by presentation time. Replicating Experiment 1, older adults were able to prioritise the more valuable object in working memory, showing equivalent benefits and costs as younger adults. However, processing speed, as indexed by presentation time, was shown not to limit strategic prioritisation in either age group. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that, although older adults have poorer visual working memory overall, the ability to strategically direct attention to more valuable items in working memory is preserved across ageing.

Bilingualism and Processing Speed in Typically Developing Children and Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose The aim of the current study was to investigate whether dual language experience modulates processing speed in typically developing (TD) children and in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). We also examined whether processing speed predicted vocabulary and sentence-level abilities in receptive and expressive modalities. Method We examined processing speed in monolingual and bilingual school-age children (ages 8-12 years) with and without DLD. TD children (35 monolinguals, 24 bilinguals) and children with DLD (17 monolinguals, 10 bilinguals) completed a visual choice reaction time task. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Expressive Vocabulary Test were used as language measures. Results The children with DLD exhibited slower response times relative to TD children. Response time was not modified by bilingual experience, neither in children with typical development nor children with DLD. Also, we found that faster processing speed was related to higher language abilities, but this relationship was not significant when socioeconomic status was controlled for. The magnitude of the association did not differ between the monolingual and bilingual groups across the language measures. Conclusions Slower processing speed is related to lower language abilities in children. Processing speed is minimally influenced by dual language experience, at least within this age range. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12210311.

Neuropsychological Trajectories Associated with Adolescent Alcohol and Cannabis Use: A Prospective 14-Year Study

OBJECTIVES

Alcohol and cannabis remain the substances most widely used by adolescents. Better understanding of the dynamic relationship between trajectories of substance use in relation to neuropsychological functioning is needed. The aim of this study was to examine the different impacts of within- and between-person changes in alcohol and cannabis use on neuropsychological functioning over multiple time points.

METHODS

Hierarchical linear modeling examined the effects of alcohol and cannabis use on neuropsychological functioning over the course of 14 years in a sample of 175 adolescents (aged 12-15 years at baseline).

RESULTS

Time-specific fluctuations in alcohol use (within-person effect) predicted worse performance across time on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence Block Design subtest (B = -.05, SE = .02, p = .01). Greater mean levels of percent days of cannabis use across time (between-person effect) were associated with an increased contrast score between Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Color Word Inhibition and Color Naming conditions (B = .52, SE = .14, p < .0001) and poorer performance over time on Block Design (B = -.08, SE = .04, p = .03). Neither alcohol and/nor cannabis use over time was associated with performance in the verbal memory and processing speed domains.

CONCLUSIONS

Greater cumulative cannabis use over adolescence may be linked to poorer inhibitory control and visuospatial functioning performance, whereas more proximal increases in alcohol consumption during adolescence may drive alcohol-related performance decrements in visuospatial functioning. Results from this prospective study add to the growing body of literature on the impact of alcohol and cannabis use on cognition from adolescent to young adulthood.

Clinico-Immunological Status and Neurocognitive Function of Perinatally Acquired HIV-Positive Children on cART: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Study in South Africa

Despite the undisputed benefits of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus (PHIV) children on treatment often present with a spectrum of neurological deficits known as HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment. Even higher CD4 cell count does not seem to prevent the development of neurocognitive impairment in children with PHIV. While CD4 cell count has shown to have the greatest prognostic value, its association with neurocognitive abilities remains to be clarified. This study aimed at determining the correlation between plasma CD4+ lymphocyte and neurocognitive function in children with PHIV on cART. In total, 152 purposively recruited hospital-based sample of children with PHIV on cART, aged 3 years to 7 years 6 months (mean age, 63.13 months), underwent neurocognitive assessment using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition. Immunological status of each child was based on the plasma CD4+ lymphocyte levels. The mean CD4+ lymphocyte cell count at the time of neurocognitive assessment was 1,259.85 cells/mm3 (mean range, 139-2,717 cells/mm3), with significant age difference on CD4+ lymphocyte count levels [F (2, 149) = 13.58, p = 0.000]. CD4+ lymphocyte counts was significantly correlated with subdomains of neurocognitive function scores of task that measures working memory, processing speed, and perceptual reasoning. Global cognitive ability (Full Scale Intellectual Quotient) had no significant association with immunological status of the children. The findings support an association between immunological status of PHIV infection and executive function task. These neurocognitive faculties are critical for learning, school readiness and success in early childhood, and ultimately treatment adherence in adolescence. The need for early identification of neurodevelopment deficits in children, even when on cART, is crucial because early psychosocial and neurorehabilitative interventions can lead to better outcome for children with PHIV.

Genetic and environmental architecture of processing speed across midlife

OBJECTIVE

Processing Speed (PS) is an important domain in cognitive aging that is characterized by multiple related but nonidentical abilities. Few studies have directly investigated the relationships among PS measures, and none have used genetically informed methods. In this study, we examined the relationship between measures of PS at up to two time points during middle age.

METHOD

We examined data from 1,262 middle-aged men when the sample was at a mean age of 56 and a mean age 62 years. Participants completed 6 measures of PS from three different cognitive tests. We used a genetically informative, confirmatory factor analytic approach to evaluate the phenotypic and genetic relationships cross-sectionally at both single time points and across time.

RESULTS

A higher-order common PS factor accounted for the covariance among three test-specific factors, and each test-specific factor accounted for the covariance between two observed measures. The general PS factor was explained primarily by genetic influences at both time points (a²age56 = .75, a²age62 = .64), and all test-specific factors were heritable (a² range: .45 to .65). Factor loadings from the test-specific factors to the general PS factor varied from λ = .46 to .82. The model was stable over time, although there were differing rates of phenotypic change among latent factors (.20 SD to .44 SD). Cross-time genetic correlations were near unity for all latent factors.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that PS is highly heritable when considered at a latent variable level, and that there are different rates of change in tests of PS within this sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A culturally fair test of processing speed: Construct validity, preliminary normative data, and effects of HIV infection on performance in South African adults

OBJECTIVES

Impaired processing speed (PS) is a feature of cognitive profiles associated with neurological disorders particularly prevalent in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs). However, commonly used PS tests are not validated for use in LMICs. We assessed, using a sample of healthy South African adults, the construct validity of PS tests contained within NeuroScreen (a tablet-based application and test battery designed to be culturally fair), and established preliminary normative data for those tests (Study 1). Moreover, because South Africa has the highest population prevalence of people living with HIV and PS deficits are a core feature of HIV-associated cognitive impairment, we assessed whether NeuroScreen could detect PS impairment in a sample of HIV-infected South African adults (Study 2).

METHODS

In Study 1 (N = 112 healthy adults) and Study 2 (the Study 1 sample, plus n = 102 HIV-infected adults), we administered Neuroscreen and a standardized paper-and-pencil neuropsychological test battery.

RESULTS

In Study 1, factor analyses indicated that NeuroScreen PS scores loaded onto one factor and converged with scores on paper-and-pencil PS tests. Regression modeling indicated that age significantly predicted NeuroScreen PS performance (i.e., younger participants performed better). In Study 2, HIV-infected participants performed significantly more poorly on NeuroScreen PS tests than their HIV-uninfected counterparts. Moreover, a significantly larger proportion of HIV-infected participants displayed impaired PS when judged against the regression-based norms.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that NeuroScreen has cross-cultural utility in assessing adult PS performance, and that it might be useful in tracking trajectories of PS decline within HIV infection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Resolving Age-Related Differences in Working Memory: Equating Perception and Attention Makes Older Adults Remember as Well as Younger Adults

OBJECTIVES

Older adults show clear deficits in working memory functioning. Here, we investigate the often-reported decline in focus switching, that is, the ability to shift items from the focus of attention into working memory, and back. Specifically, we examined whether equating subjects on early processing (perception and attention) might ameliorate the deficit.

METHOD

We examined 1-Back and 2-Back performance in younger and older adults, with line segments of different orientation as the stimuli. Stimuli were calibrated depending on each individual's 75% threshold for 1-Back performance. Subjects made match/mismatch judgments.

RESULTS

After the calibration on 1-Back performance, no age-related differences were found on either accuracy or sensitivity in the 2-Back task. Additionally, when investigating focus-switch trials versus non-focus-switch trials in a random-order 2-Back task, older adults were more efficient at switching the focus of attention than younger adults.

DISCUSSION

These results provide evidence for the view that age-related limitations in focus switching in working memory are caused (at least in part) by changes in early processing (perception and attention), suggesting that (at least some of the) age-related differences in working memory functioning may be due to shifts in trade-off between early processing and memory-related processing.

Effect of cognitive and executive functions on perception of quality of life of cognitively normal elderly people dwelling in residential aged care facilities in Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND

Although cognitive functions affect the health related quality of life (QoL), the relationship between perceived QoL and cognition including executive functions has not been studied adequately. Available studies show moderate to weak correlations. We evaluated the association of cognition and executive functions, namely working memory (WM) and inhibitory control (IC) with the perceived QoL of a sample of elderly people dwelling in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in Southern Province of Sri Lanka.

METHODS

Cognition was assessed using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), while verbal WM (VWM), visuo-spatial WM (VSWM) and IC (interference control, inhibition of pre potent and ongoing responses) were assessed using VWM, VSWM tasks, colour word Stroop (CWS), go/no-go (GNG) and stop signal (SS) tasks respectively. WHOQoL-Bref (Total score and domain scores) were used to assess QoL. The relationship was analysed using Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

Study included 237 elderly people with a mean age of 71.11 ± 6.44 years. Participants scored the highest in the domain of environment (63.48 ± 10.63) and lowest in the domain of social relationships (55.43 ± 21.84) of QoL. Psychological health domain positively correlated with MMSE, VSWM and VWM scores and negatively correlated with CWS, SS and GNG task errors. Both physical health domain and total QoL demonstrated positive correlations with MMSE, VSWM and VWM scores, while negative correlations were observed with CWS task errors. Social relationships domain demonstrated a significant positive correlation with VSWM score. Environment domain positively correlated with MMSE, VSWM and VWM scores and negatively correlated with CWS and SS task errors. All were significant but weak correlations. When controlled for covariates, such as educational status, physical activity and marital status, cognition was a predictor of the domain of environment of QoL, while executive functions were not predictors of total QoL and domains of QoL.

CONCLUSION

Cognition and executive functions weakly but significantly correlated with different domains of QoL. Only the level of cognition measured by MMSE was a predictor of the domain of environment of QoL and executive functions were not predictors of total QoL and domains of QoL in elderly people with normal cognitive functions dwelling in RACFs.

Older Adults Benefit from Symmetry, but Not Semantic Availability, in Visual Working Memory

Visual working memory exhibits age effects that are amongst the largest observed in the cognitive aging literature. In this research we investigated whether or not older adults can benefit from visual symmetry and semantic availability, as young adults typically do. Visual matrix pattern tasks varied in terms of the perceptual factor of symmetry (Experiment 1), as well as the availability of visual semantics, or long-term memory (LTM; Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, within a visual memory span protocol, four matrix pattern sets were employed with discrete symmetry characteristics; random, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal symmetry. Encoding time was 3 s with a 2 s maintenance interval. The findings indicated a significant difference in span level across age groups for all of the symmetry variants. More importantly, both younger and older adults could take advantage of symmetry in the matrix array in order to significantly improve task performance. In Experiment 2, two visual matrix task sets were used, with visual arrays of either low or high semantic availability (i.e., they contained stimuli with recognizable shapes that allow for LTM support). Encoding duration was 3 s with a 1 s retention interval. Here, the older adult sample was significantly impaired in span performance with both variants of the task. However, only the younger adult participants could take advantage of visual semantics. These findings show that, in the context of overall impairment in individual task performance, older adults remain capable of employing the perceptual cue of symmetry in order to improve visual working memory task performance. However, they appear less able, within this protocol, to recruit visual semantics in order to scaffold performance.

Increased reward-oriented impulsivity in older bipolar patients: A preliminary study

OBJECTIVE

Impulsivity is a well-established trait of bipolar disorder (BD) that persists across mood phases. It is, however, still unknown whether, in BD, impulsivity remains stable or varies in intensity over the lifespan. This cross-sectional study compared impulsive behavior in older euthymic BD patients and healthy individuals using a range of self-rating and behavioral measures of impulsivity.

METHODS

28 BD patients (56.07 ± 4.08 years, 16 women) and 15 healthy controls (HC; 55.1 ± 3.95 years, 6 women) were administered the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and selected tasks of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Batter (CANTAB) reflecting impulsivity. Multivariate analysis of variance controlled for age compared impulsivity measures across BD and HC.

RESULTS

BD patients displayed poor decision making, risk taking, and increased delay aversion. Other measures of impulsivity such as response inhibition, sustained cognitive control, and BIS scores were, overall, comparable between BD and HC.

CONCLUSIONS

These preliminary findings suggest that, in BD, aspects of impulsivity related to reward-based decision making persist into late adulthood. Large scale, longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the relationship of age to impulsivity over time, and explore the link between impulsivity and illness progression in elderly individuals with BD.

Effect of multi-micronutrient-fortified rice on cognitive performance depends on premix composition and cognitive function tested: results of an effectiveness study in Cambodian schoolchildren

Objective

Even though current policy is strongly focused on the crucial first ‘1000 days’, it might be still possible to enhance cognitive function during the pre-adolescent and adolescent years by improving micronutrient status. In Cambodia, nutritional status is poor. Provision of rice fortified with micronutrients through a school meal programme (SMP) could be a cost-effective strategy to help improve health and school performance. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of three different micronutrient-fortified rice formulations on cognitive function in Cambodian children.

Setting

Sixteen Cambodian schools receiving SMP.

Design

The FORISCA-UltraRice®+NutriRice®study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Four groups of four schools were randomly allocated to receive normal rice, UltraRice®Original, UltraRice®New or NutriRice®. Within each school, 132 children were randomly selected. Data on cognitive performance (picture completion, block design and Raven’s coloured progressive matrices (RCPM)), anthropometry, parasite infestation and micronutrient status were collected before the intervention and after 6 months.

Subjects

Cognitive data were available for 1796 children aged 6–16 years.

Results

All cognitive scores improved after 6 months (P<0·001). Block design score improvement was significantly higher in children consuming UltraRice®Original (P=0·03) compared with the other fortified rice groups and placebo. No difference among groups was found on RCPM or picture completion scores. Stunting, parasite infestation and inflammation negatively affected the impact of the intervention.

Conclusions

Combined with other interventions, using SMP to distribute fortified rice to schoolchildren may be a cost-effective way to increase cognitive performance and thereby improve school performance and educational achievements.

Neuropsychological Profile of Specific Executive Dysfunctions in Patients with Deficit and Non-deficit Schizophrenia

Objectives: Although it has been shown that there are more profound deficits present in deficit schizophrenia (DS) patients than in non-deficit schizophrenia (NDS) patients, there still remain some matters requiring further investigation. In this context, we formulated three research aims: (1) to compare executive functions between the investigated groups, (2) to determine the relationship between particular aspects of executive functions within the groups, and (3) to draw up a neuropsychological profile for executive functions.

Methods: The study involved 148 schizophrenia patients divided into two groups on the basis of the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome: DS (n = 70) and NDS (n = 78). Patients were matched for sex, age, years of education, and overall cognitive functioning. For assessing executive functions we used the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Trail Making Test (TMT), the Phonemic Verbal Fluency Test (VFT P), the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT), and the Go/No Go task (GNG).

Results: Deficit schizophrenia patients scored lower on the WCST and TMT (relative flexibility) than did the NDS patients. There were no inter-group differences in the VFT P, SCWT (relative inhibition), or GNG. There were significant correlations between WCST and TMT scores in both groups. The general neuropsychological profiles were similar in both groups.

Conclusion: Deficit schizophrenia patients exhibited slightly greater interference with concept formation and non-verbal cognitive flexibility. Therefore, such problems may be specific to this particular type of schizophrenia. These results may be useful for the development of neuropsychological diagnostic methods for patients with schizophrenia.

Are self-rated and behavioural measures of impulsivity in bipolar disorder mainly related to comorbid substance use problems?

INTRODUCTION

Impulsivity is a multidimensional feature observed in bipolar disorder (BD) and substance use disorder (SUD). We previously found a relationship between SUD and risk taking in BD. It is still unclear whether self-rated and behavioral impulsivity measures differ between BD with and without comorbid SUD, or are specific to BD.

METHODS

93 adults with BD with comorbid SUD, 91 BD without SUD, and 93 healthy controls (HC) were administered the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation System Scale (BIS/BAS), and the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Analyses compared impulsivity measures across groups controlling for age. Discriminant function analyses (DFA) assessed the combination of variables effectively predicting group membership.

RESULTS

BD displayed increased BIS, BIS/BAS scores, reduced performance on the Cambridge Gambling and Rapid Visual Processing, and Affective Go/No-Go tasks compared to HC. Comparisons between BD with and without SUD showed increased BIS Motor impulsiveness. The overall predictive power of DFA was weak.

CONCLUSIONS

Some facets of impulsivity are a core trait of BD and are partially independent from the presence of SUD. Motor impulsiveness may be distinctive of BD+SUD. More research is needed to understand the role of impulsive behaviors as risk factors for relapse in SUD.

The Effect of Apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) on Visuospatial Working Memory in Healthy Elderly and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 is the only established risk gene for late-onset, sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous studies have provided inconsistent evidence for the effect of APOE ε4 status on the visuospatial working memory (VSWM).

Objective: The aim was to investigate the effect of APOE ε4 on VSWM with an event-related potential (ERP) study in healthy controls (HC) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients.

Methods: The study recorded 39 aMCI patients (27 APOE ε4 non-carriers and 12 APOE ε4 carriers) and their 43 matched controls (25 APOE ε4 non-carriers and 18 APOE ε4 carriers) with an 64-channel electroencephalogram. Participants performed an N-back task, a VSWM paradigm that manipulated the number of items to be stored in memory.

Results: The present study detected reduced accuracy and delayed mean correct response time (RT) in aMCI patients compared to HC. P300, a positive component that peaks between 300 and 500 ms, was elicited by the VSWM task. In addition, aMCI patients showed decreased P300 amplitude at the central–parietal (CP1, CPz, and CP2) and parietal (P1, Pz, and P2) electrodes in 0- and 1-back task compared to HC. In both HC and aMCI patients, APOE ε4 carriers showed reduced P300 amplitude with respect to non-carriers, whereas no significant differences in accuracy or RT were detected between APOE ε4 carriers and non-carriers. Additionally, standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (s-LORETA) showed enhanced brain activation in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) during P300 time range in APOE ε4 carriers with respect to non-carriers in aMCI patients.

Conclusion: It demonstrated that P300 amplitude could predict VSWM deficits in aMCI patients and contribute to early detection of VSWM deficits in APOE ε4 carriers.

Feature Binding of Common Everyday Items Is Not Affected by Age

There is a surge of studies confirming that old age spares the ability to bind in visual working memory (VWM) multiple features within singular object representations. Furthermore, it has been suggested that such ability may also be independent of the cultural background of the assessed individual. However, this evidence has been gathered with tasks that use arbitrary bindings of unfamiliar features. Whether age spares memory binding functions when the memoranda are features of everyday life objects remains less well explored. The present study investigated the influence of age, memory delay, and education, on conjunctive binding functions responsible for representing everyday items in VWM. We asked 32 healthy young and 41 healthy older adults to perform a memory binding task. During the task, participants saw visual arrays of objects, colours, or coloured objects presented for 6 s. Immediately after they were asked either to select the objects or the colours that were presented during the study display from larger sets of objects or colours, or to recombine them by selecting from such sets the objects and their corresponding colours. This procedure was repeated immediately after but this time providing a 30 s unfiled delay. We manipulated familiarity by presenting congruent and incongruent object-colour pairings. The results showed that the ability to bind intrinsic features in VWM does not decline with age even when these features belong to everyday items and form novel or well-known associations. Such preserved memory binding abilities held across memory delays. The impact of feature congruency on item-recognition appears to be greater in older than in younger adults. This suggests that long-term memory (LTM) supports binding functions carried out in VWM for familiar everyday items and older adults still benefit from this LTM support. We have expanded the evidence supporting the lack of age effects on VWM binding functions to new feature and object domains (i.e., everyday items). We have confirmed that education does not negatively impact on such ability at old age. Such results have important implications for the selection of culturally unbiased tests to screen for abnormal ageing trajectories.

Spatial-Sequential Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults: Age Predicts Backward Recall Performance within Both Age Groups

Working memory is vulnerable to age-related decline, but there is debate regarding the age-sensitivity of different forms of spatial-sequential working memory task, depending on their passive or active nature. The functional architecture of spatial working memory was therefore explored in younger (18-40 years) and older (64-85 years) adults, using passive and active recall tasks. Spatial working memory was assessed using a modified version of the Spatial Span subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale - Third Edition (WMS-III; Wechsler, 1998). Across both age groups, the effects of interference (control, visual, or spatial), and recall type (forward and backward), were investigated. There was a clear effect of age group, with younger adults demonstrating a larger spatial working memory capacity than the older adults overall. There was also a specific effect of interference, with the spatial interference task (spatial tapping) reliably reducing performance relative to both the control and visual interference (dynamic visual noise) conditions in both age groups and both recall types. This suggests that younger and older adults have similar dependence upon active spatial rehearsal, and that both forward and backward recall require this processing capacity. Linear regression analyses were then carried out within each age group, to assess the predictors of performance in each recall format (forward and backward). Specifically the backward recall task was significantly predicted by age, within both the younger and older adult groups. This finding supports previous literature showing lifespan linear declines in spatial-sequential working memory, and in working memory tasks from other domains, but contrasts with previous evidence that backward spatial span is no more sensitive to aging than forward span. The study suggests that backward spatial span is indeed more processing-intensive than forward span, even when both tasks include a retention period, and that age predicts backward spatial span performance across the adult lifespan, within both younger and older adulthood.

[Formula: see text]Working memory outcomes following traumatic brain injury in children: A systematic review with meta-analysis

The aim of this review is to systematically examine the literature concerning multicomponent working memory (WM)-comprising a central executive (CE), two storage components (phonological loop, PL and visuo-spatial sketchpad, VSSP), and episodic buffer (EB)-in pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Electronic searches were conducted of MEDLINE, PsychINFO and EMBASE up to October 2014 with the inclusion criteria of children and adolescents with TBI, and quantitative methods to assess at least one component of WM. Meta-analytic procedures calculated pooled effect sizes for WM outcomes. Of the studies examined, 27 met the inclusion criteria. Children with TBI exhibited deficits in the CE and PL, but not in the VSSP, and no study could be found which examined the EB. Qualitative analysis found that greater TBI severity was associated with poorer CE functioning in five out of nine studies. Differences in patterns of brain activation were evident in four out of five fMRI studies that examined WM in TBI children and controls. Deficits in CE were associated with poorer mathematical skills in the only study that examined relations between WM and academic deficits. Notwithstanding the heterogeneity of the studies reviewed, TBI places children at risk of WM deficits. Moreover, this meta-analysis suggests that various components of WM have differential vulnerability to pediatric TBI, with significant deficits found in the CE and PL, but not in the VSSP (although the VSSP has rarely been examined to date). Future studies should be theoretically driven, employ tasks assessing all components of the WM model and examine the functional ramifications (including academic outcomes) of WM deficits in this population.

An improved spatial span test of visuospatial memory

In the widely used Corsi Block Test and Wechsler Spatial Span Tests, participants must reproduce sequences of blocks in the order touched by the examiner until two trials are missed at the same sequence length. The examiner records either the maximum number of blocks correctly reported or the total number of correct lists. Here, we describe a computerized spatial span test (C-SST) that uses psychophysical procedures to quantify visuospatial mean span (MnS) with sub-digit precision. Results from 187 participants ranging in age from 18 to 82 years showed that accuracy declined gradually with list length around the MnS (by ∼30% per item). Simulation studies revealed high variance and biases in CBT and Wechsler measures, and demonstrated that the C-SST provided the most accurate estimate of true span (i.e., the sequence length producing 50% correct). MnS declined more rapidly with age than mean digit span (MnDS) measured in the same participants. Response times correlated with both MnS and MnDS scores. Error analysis showed that omission and transposition errors predominated, with weaker primacy and recency effects in spatial span than digit span testing. The C-SST improves the precision of spatial span testing and reveals significant differences between visuospatial and verbal working memory.

Evaluating the subject-performed task effect in healthy older adults: relationship with neuropsychological tests

Background

An enhancement in recall of simple instructions is found when actions are performed in comparison to when they are verbally presented – the subject-performed task (SPT) effect. This enhancement has also been found with older adults. However, the reason why older adults, known to present a deficit in episodic memory, have a better performance for this type of information remains unclear. In this article, we explored this effect by comparing the performance on the SPT task with the performance on other tasks, in order to understand the underlying mechanisms that may explain this effect.

Objective

We hypothesized that both young and older adult groups should show higher recall in SPT compared with the verbal learning condition, and that the differences between age groups should be lower in the SPT condition. We aimed to explore the correlations between these tasks and known neuropsychological tests, and we also measured source memory for the encoding condition.

Design

A mixed design was used with 30 healthy older adults, comparing their performance with 30 healthy younger adults. Each participant was asked to perform 16 simple instructions (SPT condition) and to only read the other 16 instructions (Verbal condition – VT). The test phase included a free recall task. Participants were also tested with a set of neuropsychological measures (speed of processing, working memory and verbal episodic memory).

Results

The SPT effect was found for both age groups; but even for SPT materials, group differences in recall persisted. Source memory was found to be preserved for the two groups. Simple correlations suggested differences in correlates of SPT performance between the two groups. However, when controlling for age, the SPT and VT tasks correlate with each other, and a measure of episodic memory correlated moderately with both SPT and VT performance.

Conclusions

A strong effect of SPT was observed for all but one, which still displayed the expected aging deficit. The correlations and source memory data suggest that the SPT and VT are possibly related in respect to their underlying processes, and SPT, instead of being an isolated process, is in connection with both the episodic memory and executive function processes. Under these circumstances, the SPT seems to contribute to an enhancement of the episodic memory trace, presumably from the multimodality it provides, without involving a separated set of cognitive mechanisms. Future research using more pure measures of other cognitive processes that could be related to SPT is necessary.

Cognitive aging on latent constructs for visual processing capacity: a novel structural equation modeling framework with causal assumptions based on a theory of visual attention

We examined the effects of normal aging on visual cognition in a sample of 112 healthy adults aged 60–75. A testbattery was designed to capture high-level measures of visual working memory and low-level measures of visuospatial attention and memory. To answer questions of how cognitive aging affects specific aspects of visual processing capacity, we used confirmatory factor analyses in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM; Model 2), informed by functional structures that were modeled with path analyses in SEM (Model 1). The results show that aging effects were selective to measures of visual processing speed compared to visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity (Model 2). These results are consistent with some studies reporting selective aging effects on processing speed, and inconsistent with other studies reporting aging effects on both processing speed and VSTM capacity. In the discussion we argue that this discrepancy may be mediated by differences in age ranges, and variables of demography. The study demonstrates that SEM is a sensitive method to detect cognitive aging effects even within a narrow age-range, and a useful approach to structure the relationships between measured variables, and the cognitive functional foundation they supposedly represent.

The role of processing speed in the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test - revised

The Brief Visuospatial Memory Test - Revised (BVMT-R) is a commonly used, commercialized, assessment tool to measure visuospatial learning and memory abilities across research and clinical settings. In this study we evaluated the influence of processing speed and executive functioning on BVMT-R learning, memory, and percent retention scores. A total of 141 cognitively healthy older adults completed the BVMT-R along with measures of visuoconstructional abilities (BVMT-R copy), speeded processing (Symbol Digit Modalities Test-oral), and executive function (FAS). After controlling for age and visuoconstructional abilities, hierarchical regression models showed that the processing speed measure was a unique predictor of both BVMT-R learning and memory performances, while the executive function measure was not. The visuoconstructional measure was the only unique predictor of BVMT-R percent retention. The findings suggest that, when interpreting the BVMT-R learning and memory scores of patients who exhibit speeded processing deficits, the impact of slowed processing speed on performance should be considered.