2: Normal Aging and Cognition + Medication and Aging Flashcards
What is happening with the older adult population in the US?
significant growth (secondary to factors such as falling birth rates, increased longevity)
What is the range for young old?
65-75
What is the range for middle old?
75-84
What is the range for old old?
85+
What were the top 3 leading causes of death in 2020?
1) heart disease
2) cancer
3) COVID-19
Brain slowing as a result of synaptic pruning is due to what?
learning and environmental factors
Grey matter volume peaks in the frontal and parietal lobes at age:
12
Grey matter volume peaks in the temporal lobes at age:
16
Grey matter volume peaks in the occipital lobes at age:
20
When does development “end”?
25
The emotional centers (or ________ regions) develop before the ___________ regions. And _____ peak before _____.
limbic
prefrontal
girls, boys
What does the emotional center development before prefrontal regions lead to?
risky behaviors, decreased self-regulation
substance use typically starts
When do we see first episode of psychiatric disorders and drug use?
Adolesence
What is happening in the adolescent brain?
synaptic pruning (unused connections are eliminated, what you do with your time directly affects prefrontal wiring)
When is myelination of the parietal lobe completed?
adolescence
When is myelination of the frontal lobe completed
not until the 30s
What area of the brain is most vulnerable to atrophy as we age?
frontal lobe
Where does our highest level of cognitive thought occur?
frontal lobe
Effective and efficient cognitive function depends on what 4 things?
1) degree of myelination
2) integrity of white matter
3) density and richness of synaptic connections
4) specificity of synaptic pruning
What is crystalized intelligence?
dependent on learning and culture
reflects experience, knowledge, comprehension, judgement, and wisdom
How does crystalized intelligence change throughout the lifespan?
rises until age 70 +/-
What is fluid intelligence?
ability to identify complex relations/situations and make conclusions/inferences on the basis of the comprehension
What is fluid intelligence measured by?
cognitive tasks
not really general knowledge
How does fluid intelligence change across the lifespan?
declines from mid 20s on
What are the 2 views of cognitive change over the lifespan?
1) crystallized and fluid intelligence (separate)
2) representation and control (interact)
What is representation intelligence?
set of crystalized schemas that are the basis for memory and knowledge of the world
How does representation intelligence change across the lifespan?
maintained as we age but some is lost due to lack of use
What is control intelligence?
set of fluid operations that enable intentional processing and adaptive cognitive performance
How does control intelligence change across the lifespan?
increases in power, speed, and complexity
develop at different ages and decline at different rates
What are inhibition deficits that might occur with aging?
weakened inhibitory processes make it harder to suppress irrelevant information (distractions are more difficult to ignore)
What are 2 examples of distractions that might be hard to ignore when inhibition deficits occur?
1) changes in typeface
2) dialectal differences
What is neighborhood density?
Based on words around a word that differ by 1 phoneme (low density word = wolf, high density word = cat - bat, mat, etc.)
Is it harder to retrieve words from high or low density neighborhoods?
high
What are transmission deficits?
cognitive change with aging secondary to memory connections being weakened meaning poorer activation of target info
What is tip of the tongue syndrome?
When you know what you want to say but can’t come up with the word, but will recall at a later time, and increases with age
What is tip of the tongue syndrome most frequent with recalling (2)?
1) names
2) infrequently used words
What is cognitive slowing (3)?
1) slower processing speed
2) reduced attention abilities
3) reduced working memory
When does cognitive slowing really cause increased difficulty?
when information is presented at a faster rate
Older adults have less _____________ resources available to them, which makes them more dependent on what?
processing
top down processing
What is scaffolding?
compensatory strategy, occurs over lifespan, supports existing systems and forms new connections
What did an fMRI study on scaffolding show?
young adults had focal left prefrontal activity
older adults had bilateral left and right prefrontal activity
Why does scaffolding occur? (4)
1) brain structures show volumetric shrinkage
2) white matter loses density
3) decrease in gray matter
4) neurofibrilary plaques and tangles
In older adults we mostly see what 3 things?
1) increased frontal activity
2) increased bilateral involvement
3) less neural specificity
Scaffolding is not just a response to normal aging but also ____________
challenges
Cortical activation in young children tends to be ___________
bilateral
When do cortical activations stop being bilateral and become more focal?
when greater expertise is developed
When do more bilateral activation patterns become seen again?
With increased age
What are potential challenges that can lead to use of scaffolding? (8)
1) sleep deprivation
2) advanced biological aging
3) higher level of task demands
4) stress
5) depression
6) genetics
7) disease
8) adverse experiences
What are 2 positive factors that can influence brain function?
1) physical fitness
2) cognitive stimulation
What is the efficiency of scaffolding networks
Less efficient than well developed cognitive networks
What 3 subtests/tasks did old old participants not fall into WNL for? But…
attention, memory, and language
but still healthy and lived independently
What are 5 cognitive strengths with aging?
1) semantic memory/understanding is preserved
2) follow routines/procedures preserved
3) problem solving may be used to compensate
4) historical information preserved
5) vocabulary suffers only small losses
What group of older adults are poorest at naming pictured objects?
less educated and institutionalized
What is the most common complaint in older adults cognitively?
tip of the tongue phenomenon
What are 3 spelling and written language changes that can occur in older adults?
1) longer sentences/clauses read may not be understood
2) writing may become more simple
3) errors for irregular spelled words
How might speed of processing be affected?
slower
What is episodic memory
recall of episodes or events
What are changes in older adults with episodic memory?
forgetting short term things (where they put something, what someone said)
What is working memory?
ability to manipulate, store, and transfer pieces of information
How might working memory be affected in older age?
mental math
small amounts fine, larger/complex not
How might executive function be affected in older age?
generally do poorer on neuropsychological tests - however doesn’t correlate with real life function
What are 6 factors that can influence cognitive performance?
1) hearing
2) background noise
3) multiple speakers
4) context
5) dialect
6) rate
How can health impact aging?
poor health = faster rate of aging
What are 6 health factors that can cause fast aging?
1) diabetes
2) heart disease
3) overweight
4) smoking
5) no access to healthcare
6) genetic predisposition
