Cross-cultural validation of the COVID-19 peritraumatic distress index (CPDI) among Spanish and Peruvian populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant psychological impact worldwide. The COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) is widely used to assess psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although CPDI has been validated in Peru and Spain, no cross-cultural validation studies have been conducted. As an exploratory aim, differences in CPDI factorial scores between the most prevalent medical conditions in the two samples (arterial hypertension, respiratory diseases and anxious-depressive disorders) from a general population of Peru and Spain were investigated. We conducted secondary data analysis with data from Peru and Spain to validate the CPDI in a cross-cultural context. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) were performed to evaluate the factor structure and measurement invariance of the CPDI across cultural contexts. Concerning the exploratory analysis, we performed a U-Mann-Whitney test to evaluate differences in the factorial scores in the two samples. This study revealed a two-factor solution (stress and rumination/information) for the CPDI that included 21 of the 24 original items, and consistent with previous studies. The MGCFA demonstrated measurement invariance across cultural contexts (scalar invariance), indicating that the CPDI construct has the same meaning across both groups, regardless of cultural context and language variations of Spanish. Patients with anxious-depressive disorders showed higher CPDI factorial scores for both factors, whereas patients with respiratory diseases were only associated with the stress factor. This study provides evidence for the cross-cultural validity of the CPDI, highlighting its utility as a reliable instrument for assessing psychological stress in the context of COVID-19 across different cultures. These findings have important implications for developing and validating measures to assess psychological distress in different cultural contexts.

The impact of physical fitness, social life, and cognitive functions on work ability in middle-aged and older adults.

OBJECTIVE: Demographic changes encompass societies to maintain the work ability (WA) of aging workforces. The present study explored the relationship between modifiable lifestyle factors, cognitive functions, and their influence on WA, using a multi-group structural equation approach. METHOD: Cross-sectional data from 247 middle-aged and 236 older employees from the Dortmund Vital Study were included in this analysis. We proposed a model with three exogenous variables (Physical Fitness, Cognitive Functions, and Social Life), and with WA as the endogenous variable. WA was measured with the Work Ability Index (WAI), which considers job demands and individual physical and mental resources. Multi-group analyses were based on the principles of invariance testing and conducted using robust estimation methods. RESULTS: Results revealed that Social Life outside work had significant positive effects on WA in both, middle-aged and older adults. Physical Fitness had a significant effect on WA only in middle-aged adult, and Cognitive Functions had no significant influence on WA in either group. In older adults, Physical Fitness correlated with Cognitive Functions, whereas in middle-aged adults, Cognitive Functions marginally correlated with Social Life. CONCLUSIONS: Our results underline the importance of an active social life outside the workplace for WA, regardless of the employees' age. The influence of Physical Fitness on WA changes with increasing age, indicating the necessity to have a differentiated view of age effects and interacting influencing factors. Our research contributes to the knowledge of how WA could be most effectively promoted in different age groups. CLINICALTRIALS: gov NCT05155397; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05155397 .

COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress as a Function of Age and Gender in a Spanish Sample.

The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly altered the daily lives of the population with dramatic effects caused not only by the health risks of the coronavirus, but also by its psychological and social impact in large sectors of the worldwide population. The present study adapted the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) to the Spanish population, and 1094 Spanish adults (mean age 52.55 years, 241 males) completed the Spanish version in a cross-sectional online survey. To analyze the factorial structure and reliability of the CPDI, we performed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the Spanish sample. The effects of gender and age on the degree of distress were analyzed using the factorial scores of the CPDI as the dependent variables. Results showed that, after rotation, the first factor (Stresssymptoms) accounted for 35% of the total variance and the second factor (COVID-19 information) for 15%. Around 25% (n = 279) of the participants experienced mild to moderate distress symptoms, 16% (n = 179) severe distress, and about 58% (n = 636) showed no distress symptoms. Women experienced more distress than men (p<0.01), and distress decreased with age (p<0.01). We conclude that the CPDI seems a promising screening tool for the rapid detection of potential peritraumatic stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effects of multidomain versus single-domain training on executive control and memory in older adults: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests that both cognitive training and physical exercise help to maintain brain health and cognitive functions that decline with age. Some studies indicate that combined interventions may produce larger effects than each intervention alone. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of combined cognitive and physical training compared to cognitive training and physical training alone on executive control and memory functions in healthy older adults. OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of this four-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) are: to investigate the synergetic effects of a simultaneous, group-based multidomain training program that combines cognitive video-game training with physical exercise, in comparison to those produced by cognitive training combined with physical control activity, physical training combined with cognitive control activity, or a combination of both control activities; to investigate whether event-related potential latencies of the P2 component are shorter and N2 and P3b components assessed in a memory-based task switching task are enhanced after training; and to find out whether possible enhancements persist after a 3-month period without training. METHODS: In this randomized, single-blind, controlled trial, 144 participants will be randomly assigned to one of the four combinations of cognitive training and physical exercise. The cognitive component will be either video-game training (cognitive intervention, CI) or video games not specifically designed to train cognition (cognitive control, CC). The physical exercise component will either emphasize endurance, strength, and music-movement coordination (exercise intervention, EI) or stretching, toning, and relaxation (exercise control, EC). DISCUSSION: This RCT will investigate the short and long-term effects of multidomain training, compared to cognitive training and physical training alone, on executive control and memory functions in healthy older adults, in comparison with the performance of an active control group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03823183. Registered on 21 January 2019.

The Effect of Bilingualism on Cue-Based vs. Memory-Based Task Switching in Older Adults.

Findings suggest a positive impact of bilingualism on cognition, including the later onset of dementia. However, it is not clear to what extent these effects are influenced by variations in attentional control demands in response to specific task requirements. In this study, 20 bilingual and 20 monolingual older adults performed a task-switching task under explicit task-cuing vs. memory-based switching conditions. In the cued condition, task switches occurred in random order and a visual cue signaled the next task to be performed. In the memory-based condition, the task alternated after every second trial in a predictable sequence without presenting a cue. The performance of bilinguals did not vary across experimental conditions, whereas monolinguals experienced a pronounced increase in response latencies and error rates in the cued condition. Both groups produced similar switch costs (difference in performance on switch trials as opposed to repeating trials within the mixed-task block) and mixing costs (difference in performance on repeat trials of a mixed-task block as opposed to trials of a single-task block), but bilinguals produced them with lower response latencies. The cognitive benefits of bilingualism seem not to apply to executive functions per se but to affect specific cognitive processes that involve task-relevant context processing. The present results suggest that lifelong bilingualism could promote in older adults a flexible adjustment to environmental cues, but only with increased task demands. However, due to the small sample size, the results should be interpreted with caution.

Effects of Nonaction Videogames on Attention and Memory in Young Adults.

Objective: In this intervention study, we investigated the benefits of nonaction videogames on measures of selective attention and visuospatial working memory (WM) in young adults. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight young adults were randomly assigned to the experimental group or to the active control group. The experimental group played 10 nonaction adaptive videogames selected from Lumosity, whereas the active control group played two nonadaptive simulation-strategy games (SimCity and The Sims). Participants in both groups completed 15 training sessions of 30 minutes each. The training was conducted in small groups. All the participants were tested individually before and after training to assess possible transfer effects to selective attention, using a Cross-modal Oddball task, inhibition with the Stroop task, and visuospatial WM enhancements with the Corsi blocks task. Results: Participants improved videogame performance across the training sessions. The results of the transfer tasks show that the two groups benefited similarly from game training. They were less distracted and improved visuospatial WM. Conclusion: Overall, there was no significant interaction between group (group trained with adaptive nonaction videogames and the active control group that played simulation games) and session (pre- and post-assessment). As we did not have a passive nonintervention control group, we cannot conclude that adaptive nonaction videogames had a positive effect, because some external factors might account for the pre- and post-test improvements observed in both groups.

Executive functions in patients with Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and cognitively healthy older adults.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated whether the performance on executive function tasks of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is as impaired as that of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and to compare their performance with that of a group of cognitively healthy older adults. We also investigated whether glycosylated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c, a measure of glucose regulation) are related to performance on executive control tasks. METHODS: Three groups of participants (AD, T2DM, and healthy older adults) completed medical and psychological evaluations and performed a series of computerized tasks, including processing speed (simple and choice reaction time) tasks, verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) updating (n-back) tasks, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), to assess processing speed and executive functioning. RESULTS: As expected, the results showed that AD patients performed significantly worse than the healthy older adult group in all tasks. Executive functions deteriorated in the two groups of patients but more in the AD group. The T2DM group differed from healthy older controls but not from AD patients in the percentage of perseverations and the percentage of perseverative errors (WCST). CONCLUSIONS: These findings revealed working memory (updating and maintenance) and executive control declines in the T2DM compared to healthy older controls but smaller than that suffered by the AD patients. The impairment of executive processing of T2DM patients despite the glycosylated hemoglobin control suggests that these patients are at risk of developing AD.

Word-stem priming and recognition in type 2 diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy older adults.

The present study investigated (a) whether the pattern of performance on implicit and explicit memory of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is more similar to those of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or to cognitively normal older adults and (b) whether glycosylated hemoglobin levels (a measure of glucose regulation) are related to performance on the two memory tasks, implicit word-stem completion and "old-new" recognition. The procedures of both memory tasks included encoding and memory test phases separated by a short delay. Three groups of participants (healthy older adults, DM2 patients and AD patients) completed medical and psychological assessments and performed both memory tasks on a computer. The results of the word-stem completion task showed similar implicit memory in the three groups. By contrast, explicit recognition of the three groups differed. Implicit memory was not affected by either normal or pathological aging, but explicit memory deteriorated in the two groups of patients, especially in AD patients, showing a severe impairment compared to the cognitively healthy older adults. Importantly, glycosylated hemoglobin levels were not related to performance on either implicit or explicit memory tasks. These findings revealed a clear dissociation between explicit and implicit memory tasks in normal and pathological aging. Neuropsychologists and clinicians working with TM2 patients should be aware that the decline of voluntary, long-term explicit memory could have a negative impact on their treatment management. By contrast, the intact implicit memory of the two clinical groups could be used in rehabilitation.

Does a physically active lifestyle attenuate decline in all cognitive functions in old age?

In this study, the performance of a group of 20 physically active older adults was compared with that of a group of 20 sedentary healthy older adults while performing a series of cognitive tasks. These tasks were designed to assess processes that deteriorate most with age, namely executive control (assessed with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) and processing speed (simple and choice reaction time tasks). A repetition priming task that does not decline with age, involving attended and unattended picture outlines at encoding, was also included as a control task. The results show that a physically active lifestyle has a positive influence on executive control, processing speed, and controlled processing. As expected, a physically active lifestyle did not enhance repetition priming for attended stimuli, nor did it produce priming for unattended stimuli at encoding. Both groups exhibited robust priming for attended stimuli and no priming for unattended ones. Executive control functions are of vital importance for independent living in old age. These results have practical implications for enhancing the cognitive processes that decline most in old age. Promoting a physically active lifestyle throughout adulthood could significantly reduce the decline of effortful executive control functions in old age.

Cognitive function in normal aging and in older adults with mild cognitive impairment / Función cognitiva en mayores sanos y con déficit cognitivo leve

Background: In this study, we investigated the effects of normal and pathological (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) aging on several cognitive functions (processing speed, executive control and implicit memory). Method: Twenty young adults, 20 healthy older adults and 20 elders with MCI performed a series of cognitive tasks under controlled conditions. These tasks were simple and choice reaction time, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and an implicit memory task for attended and unattended objects at encoding. Results: The MCI group showed pronounced declines in processing speed and executive control tasks. Interestingly, young and healthy older participants showed repetition priming for stimuli that were attended at encoding, but the MCI group did not. Conclusions: In this latter group, the lack of repetition priming for attended objects in the implicit memory task resembled that of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and suggests an early defi cit of selective attention that might be a marker of pathological aging (AU)

Antecedentes: en este estudio investigamos los efectos del envejecimiento sano y patológico (déficit cognitivo leve, DCL) en varias funciones cognitivas (control ejecutivo, velocidad de procesamiento y memoria implícita). Método: veinte adultos jóvenes, 20 mayores sanos y 20 mayores DCL realizaron una serie de tareas cognitivas bajo condiciones controladas. Estas tareas fueron tiempo de reacción simple y de elección, el Test Wisconsin y una tarea de memoria implícita para objetos atendidos y no atendidos durante la codificación. Resultados: el grupo DCL mostró declives pronunciados en las tareas de velocidad de procesamiento y de control ejecutivo. Además, los jóvenes y los mayores sanos mostraron priming para los objetos atendidos durante la codificación estimular, pero no los mayores con DCL. Conclusiones: en este último grupo, la falta de priming de repetición para objetos atendidos en la tarea de memoria implícita fueron similares a los de los enfermos de Alzheimer (EA) y sugieren la existencia de un déficit temprano de la atención selectiva en mayores DCL, lo que podría ser un marcador del envejecimiento patológico (AU)

Cognitive function in normal aging and in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND: In this study, we investigated the effects of normal and pathological (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) aging on several cognitive functions (processing speed, executive control and implicit memory). METHOD: Twenty young adults, 20 healthy older adults and 20 elders with MCI performed a series of cognitive tasks under controlled conditions. These tasks were simple and choice reaction time, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and an implicit memory task for attended and unattended objects at encoding. RESULTS: The MCI group showed pronounced declines in processing speed and executive control tasks. Interestingly, young and healthy older participants showed repetition priming for stimuli that were attended at encoding, but the MCI group did not. CONCLUSIONS: In this latter group, the lack of repetition priming for attended objects in the implicit memory task resembled that of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and suggests an early deficit of selective attention that might be a marker of pathological aging.

The effect of age on the haptic horizontal-vertical curvature illusion with raised-line shapes.

In the present study, we investigated the effect of age in the haptic horizontal-vertical curvature illusion from adolescence to old age. Blindfolded participants explored raised-line convex curves with one finger and two fingers (Experiment 1). They judged the size of the curves (horizontal/vertical), using two sliding rulers. The results suggest that young and older haptic explorers overestimated the vertical. Adolescents did not show the haptic illusion. In Experiment 2, adolescents performed the task visually showing a stronger horizontal-vertical illusion. The findings suggest that the illusion develops later in touch than in vision. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Intact haptic priming in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease: evidence for dissociable memory systems.

This study is the first to report complete priming in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and older control subjects for objects presented haptically. To investigate possible dissociations between implicit and explicit objects representations, young adults, Alzheimer's patients, and older controls performed a speeded object naming task followed by a recognition task. Similar haptic priming was exhibited by the three groups, although young adults responded faster than the two older groups. Furthermore, there was no difference in performance between the two healthy groups. On the other hand, younger and older healthy adults did not differ on explicit recognition while, as expected, AD patients were highly impaired. The double dissociation suggests that different memory systems mediate both types of memory tasks. The preservation of intact haptic priming in AD provides strong support to the idea that object implicit memory is mediated by a memory system that is different from the medial-temporal diencephalic system underlying explicit memory, which is impaired early in AD. Recent imaging and behavioral studies suggest that the implicit memory system may depend on extrastriate areas of the occipital cortex although somatosensory cortical mechanisms may also be involved.

Visual-word identification thresholds for the 260 fragmented words of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish.

Word difficulty varies from language to language; therefore, normative data of verbal stimuli cannot be imported directly from another language. We present mean identification thresholds for the 260 screen-fragmented words corresponding to the total set of Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. Individual words were fragmented in eight levels using Turbo Pascal, and the resulting program was implemented on a PC microcomputer. The words were presented individually to a group of 40 Spanish observers, using a controlled time procedure. An unspecific learning effect was found showing that performance improved due to practice with the task. Finally, of the 11 psycholinguistic variables that previous researchers have shown to affect word identification, only imagery accounted for a significant amount of variance in the threshold values.

Effects of Type of Design (Blocked vs. Randomized) on Stroop and Emotional Stroop Tasks / Efectos del tipo de diseño (bloqueado vs. Aleatorizado) en la tarea stroop y stroop emocional

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of stimulus fragmentation on Stroop and emotional Stroop interference and facilitation effects when stimuli at all fragmentation levels were blocked by condition as well as when they were totally randomized across conditions. Under blocked conditions, in which stimuli from the same condition (e.g., congruent, incongruent, control conditions) at all levels of fragmentation were presented in the same block, interference appeared even at the most fragmented level, and increased linearly until level 8. The same occurred with facilitation. Randomized designs, on the other hand, showed that interference did no appear until level 4 and increased linearly until level 8, whereas facilitation disappeared. Previous work from our laboratory showed that words are objectively identified at level 4. The findings suggest the existence of a response set in blocked designs, which in turn may speak against the automaticity of the Stroop effect (AU)

En una serie de experimentos estudiamos el efecto de la cantidad de información estimular en el efecto Stroop y Stroop emocional, manipulando la presentación de palabras presentadas a ocho niveles de fragmentación diferentes. Además, una segunda variable fue el tipo de diseño. En diseños bloqueados todos los ensayos pertenecientes a la misma condición experimental (v.g., congruente, incongruente, neutral, etc.) se presentaban en el mismo bloque de forma aleatoria a todos los niveles de fragmentación. Por el contrario, en el diseño aleatorizado, los ensayos aparecían totalmente al azar. Los resultados mostraron que con el diseño bloqueado, la interferencia y la facilitación Stroop aparecían incluso en niveles de compleción en los que la palabra, objetivamente, no podía identificarse. Estos resultados sugieren la existencia de una disposición de respuesta en el observador. La repetición de palabras pertenecientes a una misma condición a distintos niveles de compleción (algunos no identificables y otros sí) podría dar lugar a la disposición de respuesta. Los resultados del diseño aleatorizado, en el que no se creaban expectativas sobre la condición del estímulo, mostraron que el efecto Stroop aparecía sólo a partir del nivel 4, nivel en el que objetivamente se identifica la palabra en tareas de identificación. Estos resultados no son consistentes con la automaticidad del efecto Stroop (AU)