The Frontal Hypothesis of Cognitive Aging: Factor Structure and Age Effects on Four Frontal Tests Among Healthy Individuals

Rodríguez‐Aranda, Claudia; Sundet, Kjetil

doi:10.3200/gntp.167.3.269-287

Cited by 63 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Both these factors appear most highly related to the working memory component found in the present study. Rodríguez-Aranda & Sundet (2006) reported evidence for four executive factors (cognitive flexibility, speed of processing, word production, and loss of set) in their neurocognitive test data from 101 normal older adults. However, they included only four tests in their analysis, and multiple measures from each test, resulting in possibly spurious results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selectivity of executive function deficits in mild cognitive impairment.

et al. 2009

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Impairment in executive cognition (EC) is now recognized as relatively common among older persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and may be predictive of the development of dementia. However, both MCI and executive functioning are broad and heterogeneous constructs. The present study sought to determine whether impairments in specific domains of EC are associated with specific subtypes of MCI. 124 MCI patients were divided into four subgroups (amnestic versus nonamnestic, and single-versus multiple-domain) based on their performance of widely-used neuropsychological screening tests. These patients and 68 normal elderly were administered 18 clinical and experimental tests of executive function. Principal components analysis suggested two highly reliable EC components, planning/problem-solving and working memory, and a less reliable third component, judgment. Planning/problem-solving and working memory, but not judgment, were impaired among the MCI patients. This was true even among those with Apure amnestic@ MCI, the least impaired group overall. Multiple-domain MCI patients had more severe impairments in planning/problem-solving and working memory than single-domain patients, leading to the supposition that they, not pure amnestic MCIs, are at highest risk of imminent dementia. Keywords executive function; mild cognitive impairment; dementia; principal components analysis; flexibility; working memory; planningThe status of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as an important clinical entity remains debated. Expert opinion ranges from it being early Alzheimer=s disease (AD) in virtually all cases (Morris et al., 2001) to it being a diagnostic nonentity (Milwain, 2000;Gauthier & Touchon, 2005; Whitehouse, 2007). Most opinions fall somewhere between these two extremes, and view MCI as a heterogeneous cognitive state that sometimes heralds the onset of progressive Address correspondence to: Jason Brandt, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Meyer 218, Baltimore, MD 21287-7218, phone 410-825-9048, fax 410-955-0504, jbrandt@jhmi.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/journals/neu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptNeuropsychology. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 September 1. Published in final edited form as:Neuropsychology. Chertkow et al., 2007). Much recent research has focused on determining the characteristics of patients with MCI that predict the progression to AD or another dementia.It is now widely recognized that several ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selectivity of executive function deficits in mild cognitive impairment.

et al. 2009

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“…We have chosen to classify verbal fluency tests as a language domain. Verbal fluency tests are often listed within the executive function domain, but have been reported as rather insensitive measures of executive function (Henry and Crawford, 2005; Rodriguez-Aranda and Sundet, 2006), and are thus treated separately in our study.…”

Section: Neuropsychological Functioning In Late-life Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression

Dybedal¹,

Tanum²,

Sundet³

et al. 2013

Front. Psychol.

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Background: The literature describing neurocognitive function in patients with late-life depression (LLD) show inconsistent findings in regard to incidence and main deficits. Reduced information processing speed is in some studies found to explain deficits in higher order cognitive function, while other studies report specific deficits in memory and executive function. Our aim was to determine the characteristics of neuropsychological functioning in non-demented LLD patients.Methods: A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered to a group of hospitalized LLD patients and healthy control (HC) subjects. Thirty-nine patients without dementia, 60 years or older meeting DSM-IV criteria for current episode of major depression, and 18 non-depressed control subjects were included. The patient group was characterized by having a long lasting current depressive episode of late-onset depression and by being non-responders to treatment with antidepressants. Neurocognitive scores were calculated for the domains of information processing speed, verbal memory, visuospatial memory, executive function, and language. Number of impairments (performance below the 10th percentile of the control group per domain) for each participant was calculated.Results: Nearly half of the patients had a clinically significant cognitive impairment in at least one neurocognitive domain. Relative to HC subjects, LLD patients performed significantly poorer in the domains of information processing speed and executive function. Executive abilities were most frequently impaired in the patient group (39% of the patients). Even when controlling for differences in processing speed, patients showed more executive deficits than controls.Conclusions: Controlling for processing speed, patients still showed impaired executive function compared to HCs. Reduced executive function thus appears to be the core neurocognitive deficit in LLD. Executive function seems to be an umbrella concept for several connected but distinct cognitive functions. Further studies of neuropsychological functioning in LLD patients are needed to characterize more specific what kinds of executive impairments patients have. Additional studies of remitted LLD patients are needed to separate episode-related and persistent impairments.

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“…Working memory was measured using the digits backwards subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale (Wechsler, 1945). This task requires participants to read a series of digits before recalling the digits in reverse order, and is a prototypical test used for the assessment of executive functioning (Rodriguez-Aranda & Sundet, 2006).…”

Section: Cognitive Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Investigation of Perceived Control and Cognitive Performance in Young, Midlife and Older Adults

Windsor

Anstey

2008

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition

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Longitudinal associations between generalized control beliefs (one's perceived capacity to influence events) and cognitive test performance were examined in a population-based sample of young, midlife and older adults. Participants provided measures of perceived control, self-assessed health, education and depression and anxiety symptoms, and completed cognitive tests at two assessments, 4 years apart. For each age group, baseline (between-person) control was positively related to performance on tests of memory (immediate recall and digits backwards), speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test and choice reaction time) and verbal intelligence (Spot-the-Word). Interaction effects indicated stronger associations of between-person control beliefs with indices of speed for the older age group relative to the younger groups. Within-person changes in control were not significantly associated with changes in cognitive test performance over the study interval. Implications of the findings for self-efficacy based interventions designed to promote cognitive functioning are discussed.

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The Frontal Hypothesis of Cognitive Aging: Factor Structure and Age Effects on Four Frontal Tests Among Healthy Individuals

Cited by 63 publications

References 59 publications

Selectivity of executive function deficits in mild cognitive impairment.

Selectivity of executive function deficits in mild cognitive impairment.

Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression

A Longitudinal Investigation of Perceived Control and Cognitive Performance in Young, Midlife and Older Adults

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