The effect of age, educational level, gender and cognitive reserve on visuospatial working memory performance across adult life span

Zarantonello, Lisa; Schiff, Sami; Amodio, Piero; Bisiacchi, Patrizia

doi:10.1080/13825585.2019.1608900

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…CR has been measured by factors such as premorbid intelligence quotient (IQ), years of education, complexity of occupation, and composites of hobbies and leisure activities (Jones et al, 2011). It is well known that older adults with a higher level of education show better global and detailed neuropsychological function (Thow et al, 2017;Groot et al, 2018;Gu et al, 2018;Lavrencic et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019;Zarantonello et al, 2020) than those with lower education levels. Healthy lifestyle, including cognitive, social, and physical activities, has also been positively correlated with global cognition (Clare et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Reserve, Leisure Activity, and Neuropsychological Profile in the Early Stage of Cognitive Decline

Lee

Kang

Kim

et al. 2020

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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In older adults with normal cognition, cognitive reserve (CR) is known to be associated with the neuropsychological profile. We investigated the association between comprehensive CR and detailed neuropsychological profile in the early stage of cognitive decline. Fifty-five participants with mild cognitive impairment or subjective cognitive decline completed the cognitive reserve index questionnaire (CRIq) that yielded total, education, working activity, and leisure time scores (CRI-Total, CRI-Education, CRI-Working activity, and CRI-Leisure time, respectively). Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and detailed neuropsychological evaluation were performed. Psychiatric symptom scales were applied to measure depression, apathy, positive or negative affect, and quality of life. Correlation and linear regression analyses of the variables were performed. The effect of CR-Education, CRI-Working activity, and CRI-Leisure time on the composite cognitive score was determined using a multivariable regression model. We observed that for CRI-Total (B = 3.00, p = 0.005), CRI-Education (B = 3.39, p = 0.002), and CRI-Leisure time (B = 2.56, p = 0.015), CR correlated with MMSE scores, while only CRI-Leisure time associated with the naming ability (B = 2.20, p = 0.033) in the detailed neuropsychological test results of the participants. Multivariable regression model also indicated that among CRI subscores, CRI-Leisure time directly affects the composite cognitive score (β = 0.32, p = 0.011). We found that in the early stage of cognitive decline in older adults, comprehensive CR was associated with global cognition, and only leisure activity was identified to be associated with the detailed neuropsychological profile including naming ability. These results may imply the positive effect of leisure activity on cognitive function in the early stages of cognitive decline.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Reserve, Leisure Activity, and Neuropsychological Profile in the Early Stage of Cognitive Decline

Lee

Kang

Kim

et al. 2020

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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“…In the present study, we enrolled participants within a narrow age range (young master students) as brain activity associated to WM tasks has been demonstrated to be influenced by age (Nagel et al 2009 ). Assessing whether individuals’ cognitive reserve could modulate this relationship (Zarantonello et al 2020 ) could be a further area of investigation. Moreover, as in the present study the participants had no previous experience with the CBT, and had no opportunity to practice the test before the experimental procedure, it could be worth investigating whether task-induced activity could change with levels of expertise in CBT administration (Causse et al 2019 ), so to comprehend whether a reduced cognitive load in managing the task could be associated with lower brain activity levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain hemodynamic response in Examiner–Examinee dyads during spatial short-term memory task: an fNIRS study

et al. 2021

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The Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) is a measure of spatial working memory (WM) in clinical practice, requiring an examinee to reproduce sequences of cubes tapped by an examiner. CBT implies complementary behaviors in the examiners and the examinees, as they have to attend a precise turn taking. Previous studies demonstrated that the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is activated during CBT, but scarce evidence is available on the neural correlates of CBT in the real setting. We assessed PFC activity in dyads of examiner–examinee participants while completing the real version of CBT, during conditions of increasing and exceeding workload. This procedure allowed to investigate whether brain activity in the dyads is coordinated. Results in the examinees showed that PFC activity was higher when the workload approached or reached participants’ spatial WM span, and lower during workload conditions that were largely below or above their span. Interestingly, findings in the examiners paralleled the ones in the examinees, as examiners’ brain activity increased and decreased in a similar way as the examinees’ one. In the examiners, higher left-hemisphere activity was observed suggesting the likely activation of non-spatial WM processes. Data support a bell-shaped relationship between cognitive load and brain activity, and provide original insights on the cognitive processes activated in the examiner during CBT.

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“…For instance, Fung [ 58 ] argued that the combination of physical activity and the intake of the appropriate medication in older adults with vascular risk factors helps them maintain their cognitive functions. On the same line, higher educational level also may function in a protective way in people suffering from vascular risk factors, as it provides a form of neural compensation and contributes to cognitive reserve [ 59 , 60 ], even when people deal with more than one vascular pathology. So, it may be assumed that people who suffer from many vascular risk factors could have other characteristics (e.g., high educational level) or could have adopted other strategies or mechanisms to deal with them, compared to people with one or two vascular risk factors, and these function in a compensatory way, contributing to the maintenance of their cognitive functions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults

et al. 2021

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Episodic buffer (EB), a key component of working memory, seems to have a rather complicated function as part of binding processes. Recent papers on the field claim that binding processes of working memory (WM) are assisted by attention and executive functions. On the same page, vascular pathology is gaining more ground as the main underlying cause for many brain pathologies. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, lack of exercise and smoking are the most common risk factors that people of all ages suffer from and constitute the main vascular risk factors responsible for a possible decline in executive functions and attention. Thus, this research is an attempt to examine the relation between the binding functions of WM and the existence of vascular risk factors via a computerized test focusing on feature binding. The study comprised adults (n = 229) with and without vascular risk factors. The main tools used were a biomarker questionnaire and a feature binding test (FBT). The results showed that participants who report suffering from one or more vascular risk factors had significantly lower performance on specific subtasks of the FBT in comparison to the participants who were healthy. This allows us to assume that there might be a positive association between feature binding and a vascular risk profile in adults, and such a test could be a useful diagnostic tool for early cognitive impairment due to incipient vascular pathology.

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The effect of age, educational level, gender and cognitive reserve on visuospatial working memory performance across adult life span

Cited by 25 publications

References 71 publications

Cognitive Reserve, Leisure Activity, and Neuropsychological Profile in the Early Stage of Cognitive Decline

Cognitive Reserve, Leisure Activity, and Neuropsychological Profile in the Early Stage of Cognitive Decline

Brain hemodynamic response in Examiner–Examinee dyads during spatial short-term memory task: an fNIRS study

The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults

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