This review article provides an update of the empirical research on cognitive fragility conducted in the last four years. The studies retrieved were classified in four different categories. The first category includes articles relating cognitive frailty to cognitive reserve and which continue to highlight the importance of educational level. The second category includes recent research on cognitive fragility biomarkers, involving neuroimaging, metabolism and, in a novel way, microbiota. The third category includes research on how cognitive frailty is related to motor development and physical functioning, exploring e.g. the use of technology to study motor markers of cognitive frailty. Finally, in the fourth category, research clarifying the difference between reversible frailty and potentially reversible cognitive frailty has led to new interventions aimed at reducing cognitive frailty and preventing negative health outcomes. Interventions based on physical activity and multicomponent interventions are particularly emphasized. In addition, recent research explores the long-term effects of dual interventions in older adults living in nursing homes. In summary, research on cognitive frailty has increased in recent years, and applied aspects have gained importance.
The concurrent-task paradigm (multitask setting) constitutes an appropriate methodology to assess executive attention, specifically to assess the ability to share attentional resources in order to attend to the requirements of the two or more tasks. Performance declines and costs increase gradually as task demands rise, especially in older adults. Since many activities of daily living involve the simultaneous performance of two or more motor and cognitive tasks, multitask settings can play a central role in the quality of life of institutionalized old adults. In community-dwelling old adults, performance costs have been proposed as a marker for cognitive frailty. In neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, concurrent tasks may provide valid measures of the progression of the diseases. In the chapter, the authors summarize an intervention model in multitask settings designed to reduce performance costs and improve functioning in daily life.
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