Aging and verbal memory span: a meta-analysis

Using Brinley plots, this meta-analysis provides a quantitative examination of age differences in eight verbal span tasks. The main conclusions are these: (a) there are age differences in all verbal span tasks; (b) the data support the conclusion that working memory span is more age sensitive than short-term memory span; and (c) there is a linear relationship between span of younger adults and span of older adults. A linear model indicates the presence of three distinct functions, in increasing order of size of age effects: simple storage span; backward digit span; and working memory span.     

Prose recall: effects of aging, verbal ability, and reading behavior

This paper describes an exploratory multivariate analysis designed to determine the relative contributions of age, verbal ability, education, reading habits, and recall strategies to the explanation of variation in performance on prose recall tasks among adults. Four hundred twenty-two adults in three age groups--young (18 to 32), middle (40 to 54) and old (62 to 80)--read and recalled in writing two 388-word prose passages and answered questions about their background, reading habits, and recall strategies. Results indicate that a decrease in quantity of recall appears with increasing age, though verbal ability is a better predictor of recall than is age. In addition, a recall strategy factor representing a paragraph-by-paragraph retrieval strategy produces the highest simple correlations with total recall and contributes significantly to the other recall measures.     

Subjective age and verbal fluency among middle aged and older adults: A meta-analysis of five cohorts

ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the relation between subjective age and verbal fluency in five large samples of older adults to advance knowledge on the role of subjective age in a complex cognitive function that is an intermediate marker of cognitive impairment and dementia risk.MethodsParticipants (N > 27,000), aged 32 to 99 years old, predominantly white, were from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduate (WLSG) and Siblings (WLSS) samples, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS), and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). They provided complete data on subjective age, demographic factors and verbal fluency. Estimates from each sample were combined in a meta-analysis.ResultsAcross each of the five samples and in the meta-analysis, an older subjective age was related to lower performance on the verbal fluency task. This association was independent of chronological age and was not moderated by age, sex, nor education. The difference in fluency between individuals with an older and younger subjective age ranged from d = 0.09 to d = 0.37 across the five samples.ConclusionsThis study found replicable evidence for an association between an older subjective age and lower verbal fluency, extending knowledge about an intermediate marker of cognitive function.     

Durable effects of concentrated disadvantage on verbal ability among African-American children

Disparities in verbal ability, a major predictor of later life outcomes, have generated widespread debate, but few studies have been able to isolate neighborhood-level causes in a developmentally and ecologically appropriate way. This study presents longitudinal evidence from a large-scale study of >2,000 children ages 6-12 living in Chicago, along with their caretakers, who were followed wherever they moved in the U.S. for up to 7 years. African-American children are exposed in such disproportionate numbers to concentrated disadvantage that white and Latino children cannot be reliably compared, calling into question traditional research strategies assuming common points of overlap in ecological risk. We therefore focus on trajectories of verbal ability among African-American children, extending recently developed counterfactual methods for time-varying causes and outcomes to adjust for a wide range of predictors of selection into and out of neighborhoods. The results indicate that living in a severely disadvantaged neighborhood reduces the later verbal ability of black children on average by approximately 4 points, a magnitude that rivals missing a year or more of schooling.     

Macronutrient, vitamin, and mineral intakes in the EPIC-Germany cohorts

This article presents intakes of nutrients in the EPIC-Heidelberg and the EPIC-Potsdam (European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) studies. Estimates are based on standardized 24-hour dietary recalls. Recalls from 1,013 men and 1,078 women in Heidelberg and from 1,032 men and 898 women in Potsdam were included in the analysis. The estimated nutrient intake was based on the German Food Code and Nutrient Data Base version II.3. Analyses were carried out stratified by sex and weighted for the day of the week and age. Men in Potsdam reported significantly higher intakes of energy (mean Potsdam = 10,718 kJ, mean Heidelberg = 10,387 kJ) and higher intakes of vitamins and minerals as compared with men in Heidelberg. However, Heidelberg men consumed more alcohol, alpha-tocopherol, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium. Potsdam women reported lower energy (mean Potsdam = 7,537 kJ, mean Heidelberg = 7,855 kJ), alcohol, and cholesterol intakes as compared with Heidelberg women. Vitamin and mineral intakes were lower too, except for retinol and ascorbic acid. The intakes of energy and most nutrients observed in the Potsdam and Heidelberg study populations were within the range reported from other German studies. The observed differences between both study populations indicate different dietary patterns, increasing the exposure variation in the EPIC study.     

Aging, culture, and cognition

There is evidence that East Asians are biased to process information in a holistic, contextual fashion, whereas Western Europeans process information in an analytic, feature-based style. We argue that these cultural differences in information-processing styles are so pervasive that they affect cognitive function at the most basic levels, including the mechanics of cognition. However, as individual age, it is not always the case that culture effects on cognitive processes magnify, despite many additional years of exposure to the culture. Neurobiological decline in cognitive function that occurs with age is a cognitive universal and can limit the strategies used in late adulthood, resulting in more similarity in cognitive function in late adulthood across cultures than is observed in young adulthood. We present a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of aging on cognitive function cross-culturally. The importance of developing culture-invariant measures of processing resources is emphasized and methodological issues associated with the cross-cultural study of aging are addressed.     

Aging,fertility, and immortality

Evolutionary theory suggests that fecundity rates will plateau late in life in the same fashion as mortality rates. We demonstrate that late-life plateaus arise for fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster. The result qualitatively fits the evolutionary theory of late life based on the force of natural selection. But there are a number of alternative interpretations. Fecundity plateaus could be secondary consequences of mortality-rate plateaus. Female fecundity plateaus might arise from diminished male sexual function. Another alternative hypothesis is analogous to male sexual inadequacy: nutritional shortfalls. These may arise later in life because of a decline in female feeding or digestion. If some females have a life-long tendency to lay eggs at a faster rate, but die earlier, then aging for fecundity could arise from the progressive loss of the fast-layers, with the late-life plateau simply the laying patterns of individual females who were slow-layers throughout adult life. If this type of model is generally applicable to late life, then we should find that the females who survive to lay at a slow but steady rate in late life have a similar laying pattern in mid-life.     

Aging, telomeres, and atherosclerosis

Although the level and pace of population aging display high geographical variability, virtually all countries have been experiencing growth in their elderly population, particularly in developed nations. Because aging is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis and associated disease, it is of up most importance to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved in vascular aging. Telomeres are specialized DNA-protein structures located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes whose length is progressively reduced in most somatic cells during aging. It is accepted that telomere exhaustion contributes to organismal ageing at least by impairing cell proliferation and viability. An emerging question is whether telomere erosion contributes to atherosclerosis. Here we discuss recent advances on the molecular control of telomere length in vascular cells, as well as animal and human studies that address the role of telomeres in vascular pathobiology. Although the interrelationships between telomere length and cardiovascular disease appear obvious, a chief question that remains unanswered is whether telomere ablation is cause of vascular injury or a surrogate phenomenon.     

Aging, disability and frailty

Despite multiple and often overlapping definitions of disability and frailty, both are common clinical characteristics of aged individuals though not identical. The geriatric syndrome of frailty is described as status of global impairment of physiological reserves involving multiple organ systems. The clinical correlate of frailty manifests as increased vulnerability, impaired capability to withstand intrinsic and environmental stressors, and limited capacity to maintain physiological and psychosocial homeostasis. Geriatric frailty is found in 20-30% of the elderly population over 75 years and increases with advancing age. It was reported to be associated with long-term adverse health-related outcomes - increased risk of geriatric syndromes, dependency, disability, hospitalization, institutional placement, and mortality. The clinical phenotype of frailty manifests as multi-system pathologies characterized by low physical activity, global weakness with low muscle strength, fatigability/exhaustion, overall slowness particularly of gait, loss of weight among others. These above-mentioned clinical symptoms could be explained by (or related to) some 'preclinical' diagnoses such as sarcopenia, osteopenia, nonspecific balance disorders, nutritional problems, and overall deconditioning. More recent studies found the frailty clinical phenotype to be associated with pathologic laboratory markers (IL-6, CRP, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, IGF-1, D-dimers), which suggest possible pathogenesis involving hormonal dysregulation, immuno-aging, pro-coagulation and pro-inflammatory status. In the article, current recommendations for future research strategies of frailty syndrome will be discussed.     

Aging impairs the ability to ignore irrelevant information in frequency discrimination tasks

Age effects on the ability to ignore irrelevant auditory information were studied using frequency discrimination threshold (FDT) tasks. FDTs were determined in an unmasked condition with target tones in isolation, and in two backward-masked conditions with a nontarget masking tone presented 20 to 240 ms after the target.One masked condition included irrelevant variability in the masker frequency, but the other did not. The no-variability condition yielded more masking in older than in young adults. Masker variability induced large FDT elevations in both groups; however, the improvement in FDTs with training was large in young but only minimal in older adults.     

Work ability and physical fitness among aging workers: the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study

BackgroundWith advancing age, physical capacity gradually decreases which may lead to decreased work ability, if the physical work requirements remain the same. Examination of the importance of physical fitness for work ability among aging workers will help to find potential strategies to promote work ability in old age. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between physical fitness and work ability among aging workers. MethodsAging workers (n = 288, mean age 62.5, 83% women) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study underwent cardiorespiratory, muscular fitness and functional testing. Work ability was inquired on a scale 0–10 from poor to excellent. Association between physical fitness indicators and work ability was examined using ordinary least squares regression, taking into account age, gender, occupational status, heavy physical work, body mass index and accelerometer-measured daily total physical activity.ResultsVO2peak, modified push-up test and maximal walking speed were positively associated with work ability (β = 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.29–0.74, β = 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.66 and β = 0.23, 95% CI 0.07–0.39, respectively), while chair rise test time was inversely associated with work ability (β = −0.23, 95% CI −0.39–−0.06). No associations were found between hand grip strength or sit-up test and work ability.ConclusionsCardiorespiratory fitness, upper body strength, and lower extremity function were positively associated with work ability. Good physical fitness may help to maintain work ability among aging workers.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00714-1.     

Religion, physical disabilities, and life satisfaction in older age cohorts

Concern here is with the relationship between religious affiliation and life satisfaction. Past research points to religion as an important factor in adjustment of the aged. However, there have been contradictory findings on aging and church attendance. Church attendance patterns are examined in relation to aging and personal adjustment. The intervening variable of the elderly person's physical disabilities is offered as an explanation for declining church attendance with age.     

四个不同脑部位卒中后听觉词语学习能力比较研究

目的 分析左右丘脑和左右基底节卒中后听觉词语学习能力、记忆和保留能力的差异.方法 选择具有单一病灶的丘脑、基底节卒中患者63例与健康对照组34例、遗忘型轻度认知功能损害(aMCI)患者34例进行听觉词语学习测验评定. 结果 卒中组与健康对照组比较,听觉词语即刻与延迟自由回忆、听觉词语的保留率均有显著下降(P＜0.05);听觉再认左丘脑卒中组受损(19.0±3.1)分,aMCI组受损(17.6±3.3)分,而另外3个卒中组保留.听觉词语学习能力左丘脑卒中组为(2.2±2.0)分,右丘脑卒中组为(2.1±1.9)分,与健康对照组(3.6±1.8)分比较,左右丘脑卒中组的听觉词语学习能力下降明显(P＜0.05);听觉词语保留能力左丘脑卒中组(2.8±1.7)分,右基底节卒中组(2.7±1.9)分,与健康对照组(1.7±1.4)分比较显著下降(P＜0.05). 结论 卒中组患者的自由回忆、学习能力和保留能力下降,以左丘脑下降更明显;左丘脑卒中的听觉记忆损害模式与aMCI组相似,而不同于另外3个卒中组.