Sex on the Brain or the Sexual Self-Consciousness as Essential Factor Influencing Cognitive Performance of Older People?

Abstract

The authors comment some recent articles on the detected positive associations between sexual activity and results of tests of cognitive performance achieving by older people. They indicate the data collected in the course of "Wave 6" of The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Text of the article:Recently we would like to publish the paper sub title: "The trial of the evaluation of the sexual selfconsciousness of older people". The reviewer wrote that: "Title does not make sense", but among other remarks he indicated the paper, which really was missing among our reference publications, it means the article of Hayley Wright and Rebecca A. Jenks entitled: "Sex on the brain! Associations between sexual activity and cognitive function in older age" [1]. The authors of this article take advantage of data collected in the course of "Wave 6" of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative panel survey that gathers data on health, lifestyle and socioeconomic variables in adults over the age of 50 years. The questionnaire for the cohort "Wave 6 of ELSA" includes first time the questions pertaining to sexual relationships, and therefore enable the investigation of associations between sexual activity and cognitive function of older people. The authors of the quoted article selected from many questions of the used Sexual Relationships and Activities Questionnaire (SRA-Q), only a simple specific criterion enabling to distinguish older adults who were sexually active from those who were not. They assumed that sexual activity could include: intercourse, masturbation, petting or fondling. The dependant variables in this study were scores from cognitive tests of recall and a number sequencing. In the recall task, respondents heard a list of 10 everyday words and were asked to recall them immediately away and after a short delay. Wrigh et al. found that "there were significant associations between sexual activity and number sequencing and recall in men". The authors assumed that these parameters are good enough measurements of cognitive performance. They argue that "sexual activity is associated with higher scores on tests of memory and executive function, in adults aged 50-89".