CATSLife: A Study of Lifespan Behavioral Development and Cognitive Functioning

Abstract

The purpose of this update is to provide the most current information about both the Colorado Adoption Project (CAP) and the Longitudinal Twin Study (LTS) and to introduce the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife), a product of their merger and a unique study of lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging. The primary objective of CATSLife is to assess the unique saliency of early childhood genetic and environmental factors to adult cognitive maintenance and change, as well as proximal influences and innovations that emerge across development. CATSLife is currently assessing up to 1600 individuals on the cusp of middle age, targeting those between 30 and 40 years of age. The ongoing CATSLife data collection is described as well as the longitudinal data available from the earlier CAP and LTS assessments. We illustrate CATSLife via current projects and publications, highlighting the measurement of genetic, biochemical, social, sociodemographic and environmental indices, including geospatial features, and their impact on cognitive maintenance in middle adulthood. CATSLife provides an unparalleled opportunity to assess prospectively the etiologies of cognitive change and test the saliency of early childhood versus proximal influences on the genesis of cognitive decline.

Mental health explains individual deviations from normative range in cognition-associated brain states

“…Cognitive functions are a set of mental abilities such as problem solving and decision making that are required to perform daily tasks. The ability to execute such functions has been shown to vary across the lifespan 1 , and from one condition to the other 2 . In fact, impairment in such ability (i.e., cognitive deficit) is recognized as a common symptom present in the majority of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia 3 , depression 4 and bipolar disorder 5 .…”

The role of neighborhood stressors on cognitive function: A coordinated analysis

“…Participant address data were available for CATSLife and although participants were enrolled into their parent studies while living in the state of Colorado, geocoded participant address data showed that they now reside across the United States (Wadsworth et al, 2019). In an effort to contextualize these participants' neighborhoods, we leveraged national rankings of the Area Deprivation Index (ADI; University of Wisconsin School of Medicine Public Health, 2015).…”

“…Cognitive Assessments.-During the in-person assessment, participants completed measures of perceptual speed and spatial abilities. The specific cognitive abilities battery incorporating these measures was based on the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition (DeFries et al, 1978(DeFries et al, , 1981Wadsworth et al, 2019). The z score standardized cognitive task scores were added together to form a cognitive ability composite and this composite was then z score standardized resulting in a mean of zero and standard deviation of one for both the cognitive task domains.…”

“…Because there may be variation in neighborhood contexts according to a study's specific recruitment strategy and location, we chose to test our hypotheses in three studies across different geographical contexts with comparable measures of perceived neighborhood stressors. Data for one of the studies were collected in a prescribed area in New York, USA (ESCAPE; Scott et al, 2015) another that began in Colorado, USA but with participants currently living across the country (CATSLife; Wadsworth et al, 2019), and one that was designed as a national survey of midlife in the United States (MIDUS; Ryff et al, 2007). The studies incorporated psychosocial neighborhood measures that captured multiple domains of perceived neighborhood stressors, such as feelings of safety in one's neighborhood, aesthetic quality, and social cohesion, and they also included measures of fluid or attention-demanding cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory).…”

The Colorado Twin Registry: 2019 Update

“…A third study using the LTS sample is the CATSLife study of cognitive aging as described in more detail in the companion piece in this issue (Wadsworth et al, 2019). Testing began in 2015 with scheduled completion in 2020 and is synchronized when possible with the third wave of LTS-EF.…”