Age-Differential Role of Gaze Reinstatement in Recognition Memory for Negative Visual Stimuli.

OBJECTIVES: Although research has shown that the replay of encoding-specific gaze patterns during retrieval, known as gaze reinstatement, facilitates memory retrieval, little is known about whether it differentially associates with the negativity preference in memory (defined as enhanced memory for negative stimuli relative to neutral stimuli in this study) among younger and older adults. The present study aims to address this research gap. METHODS: A total of 33 older adults (16 women; aged 58-69 years, M = 63.48, SD = 2.98) and 36 younger adults (10 women; aged 18-26 years, M = 20.39, SD = 1.57) completed a remember/know recognition memory task involving negative and neutral pictures. Their eye movements were tracked during both the memory encoding and retrieval phases. RESULTS: Younger and older adults had better memory for negative than neutral pictures. Older adults exhibited significantly stronger gaze reinstatement for negative than neutral stimuli, while this difference was nonsignificant in younger adults. Moreover, gaze reinstatement is positively linked to memory performance in both age groups. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that gaze reinstatement may play age-differential roles in the negativity preference of memory. Negative valence may enhance gaze reinstatement, which improves subsequent recognition memory, particularly among older adults. The finding contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the negative preference for memory in different age groups.

Improved Mood Boosts Memory Training Gains in Older Adults With Subjective Memory Complaints via Enhanced Amygdala-hippocampal Connectivity.

OBJECTIVE: Older adults with subjective memory complaints (SMC) have a higher risk of dementia and commonly demonstrate symptoms of anxiety. This study examined the neural correlates of group counseling (GC)-boosted memory training (MT) gains. DESIGN: This study was an active, controlled, randomized trial. SETTING: Neighborhoods near the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling older adults, aged 60 or above with a minimum of 6 years of education, were recruited through advertisements and flyers posted at community service stations. MEASUREMENTS: The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) analyses were used to examine the neural correlates associated with MT gains enhanced by improved mood in older adults with SMC. Participants were randomly assigned to the combined intervention (CI) or GC group. The CI group received 3 weeks of GC followed by 4 weeks of MT, and the GC group received GC and health lectures. Cognitive function and emotions were assessed before GC (T1), after GC (T2), and after MT (T3). Both groups underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning at T2 and T3. RESULTS: Alleviated anxiety was positively correlated with rs-FC between the amygdala and left hippocampus and negatively correlated with rs-FC between the amygdala and right hippocampus. MT improvement was negatively correlated with rs-FC between the amygdala and right hippocampus in the CI group; the correlation was not significant after controlling for emotional changes. CONCLUSIONS: Amygdala-hippocampal connectivity may be associated with improved mood-enhanced MT gains in individuals with SMC.

A Multimodal Intervention to Improve Cognition in Community-dwelling Older Adults.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of a multimodal intervention composed of cognitive training, physical exercise, and group counseling on cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. DESIGN: A four-armed, quasi-experimental intervention study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older (n = 153). INTERVENTION: Participants were allocated into multimodal intervention, cognitive training plus Taichi exercise, cognitive training, or control group. The multimodal intervention included 18 sessions of cognitive training, 18 sessions of Taichi, and 6 sessions of group reminiscence over six weeks. MEASUREMENTS: Cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and psychological well-being were assessed at the baseline, postintervention, and three-month follow-up. The primary outcome was the change in overall cognition measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and a composite cognitive score derived from a battery of neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: For MoCA, there was no significant difference between any of the three intervention groups and controls. For composite cognition, all three intervention groups showed improvements at the three-month follow-up, with a large effect size in the cognitive training plus Taichi group (change difference 0.37, 95% CI 0.18-0.56, Hedge's g = 0.92), and medium effect sizes in the multimodal intervention group (change difference 0.23, 95% CI 0.0 -0.42, g = 0.58) and cognitive training group (change difference 0.22, 95% CI 0.03-0.42, g = 0.55). CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal intervention, cognitive training plus Taichi, and cognitive training could foster cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. The combination of cognitive training and Taichi showed greater efficacy than the other two interventions.

Cognitive training modified age-related brain changes in older adults with subjective memory decline.

OBJECTIVES: Neuroimaging findings suggest that older adults with subjective memory decline (SMD) demonstrate some neurodegenerative brain changes and have high risk of developing dementia, but relatively little is known about the effectiveness of interventions for SMD. This study aimed to examine the effects of cognitive training on resting-state brain activity in SMD. METHOD: This study employed the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) analyses. After baseline evaluations, participants were randomly allocated to the intervention and control group to receive a four-week cognitive training and lectures on health and aging, respectively. All participants were scanned before and after training with an interval of about three months. RESULTS: (1) Participants in the intervention group showed significant improvements on the Associative Learning Test (ALT) and the Digit Span Forward task compared to the control group; (2) ALFF in the occipital lobe for the control group increased significantly, while that for the intervention group remained the same; ALFF changes were negatively correlated with ALT performance in the control group; (3) The mean value of rs-FC for the intervention group decreased, while that for the control group showed a trend of increase; rs-FC changes were also negatively correlated with ALT performance in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Resting-state brain activities in occipital region increased with aging. The cognitive training could counteract this brain function changes associated with aging or even reverse the changes. These findings provide new insights into the understanding of brain plasticity in posterior areas in SMD. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR-IOR-15006165 in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry.

Alleviated Anxiety Boosts Memory Training Gain in Older Adults with Subjective Memory Complaints: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Older adults with subjective memory complaints (SMC) have a higher risk of dementia and commonly demonstrate symptoms of depression and anxiety. The study aimed to examine the effect of a memory training program for individuals with SMC, and whether additional group counseling aimed at alleviating depression and anxiety would boost memory training gains. DESIGN: A three-armed, double-blind, randomized controlled trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling older adults with SMC, age ≥60. METHODS: Participants (n = 124) were randomly assigned to memory training (MT), group counseling (GC), or GC + MT intervention. The GT + MT group received 3 sessions of group counseling followed by a 4-week memory training, while the MT group attended reading and memory training, and the GC group received group counseling and health lectures. Cognitive function and symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed at baseline, mid-, and post-intervention. RESULTS: After group counseling, the GC + MT and GC groups showed reduced symptoms of anxiety compared to the MT group. Memory training enhanced associative learning in both MT and GC + MT groups compare with the GC group, but the GC + MT group demonstrated a larger memory improvement (Cohen's d = 0.57) than the MT group (Cohen's d = 0.44). CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Group counseling decreased symptoms of anxiety, memory training increased associative learning, and the combination of two intervention induced larger memory gain than memory training alone. The results suggest that it may need to integrate treatment for anxiety into memory training for older adults with SMC to achieve better intervention effect. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR-IOR-15006165 in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry.

Time Unpacking Effect on Intertemporal Decision-Making: Does the Effect Change With Choice Valence?

People often feel that a period of time becomes longer when it is described in more detail or cut into more segments, which is known as the time unpacking effect. The current study aims to unveil how time unpacking manipulation impacts intertemporal decision making and whether the gain-loss valence of choices moderates such impacts. We recruited 87 college students (54 female) and randomly assigned them to the experimental conditions to complete a series of intertemporal choice tasks. The subjective values of the delayed choices were calculated for each participant and then analyzed. The results showed that participants perceived longer time delays and higher subjective values on the delayed gains (but not losses) in the time unpacking conditions than in the time packing conditions. These results suggest that time unpacking manipulation not only impacts time perception but also other factors, which in turn, influence the valuation of delayed outcomes and thereby intertemporal choices. The results are discussed in comparison to previous studies to highlight the complexity of the mechanism underlying the effect of time unpacking on intertemporal decision making.

Social Support and the Incidence of Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults in China: Findings From the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey Study.

OBJECTIVE: Social support shows a protective effect against cognitive impairment in older adults. However, the longitudinal relationship between the distinct sources of social support and the incidence of cognitive impairment remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the association between different sources of social support and the incidence of cognitive impairment among older adults in China. METHOD: We used longitudinal data (2005-2014) from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS, 2005-2014, mean follow-up years 5.32 ± 2.64). In total, 5897 participants (aged 81.7 ± 9.7 years, range 65-112 years, 49.0% male) were enrolled. Cognitive impairment was measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Social support included support from family and friends (marital status; contacts with family and friends; children's visits; siblings' visits, sick care; money received from and money given to children) and the availability of support from social community (social service and social security). We calculated subdistribution hazard ratios (SHR) of cognitive impairment by establishing Cox regression models, adjusting for residence, gender, age, education, participation in physical exercise, activities of daily living, smoking, drinking, negative psychological well-being, baseline cognitive function, occupation, leisure activities, and diseases. RESULTS: During a 9-year follow-up, 1047 participants developed cognitive impairment. Participants who were married had a 16.0% lower risk of developing cognitive impairment compared to the widowed older adults after controlling for all covariates, but the protective effect of being married was no longer significant (p = 0.067) when additional adjustment was made for all types of social support. Children's visits were significantly associated with the risk of cognitive impairment after controlling for all types of social support and covariate variables (SHR = 0.808, 95% confidence interval, 0.669-0.975, p = 0.026). CONCLUSION: Children's visits were consistently associated with a lower incidence of cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults.

The influence of induced mood on music preference.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the impact of different self-centered moods on music preference without listening to music. Participants' affective state (sad vs. happy vs. neutral) were experimentally manipulated through the mood induction procedure, and then their preferences for music were ascertained through self-reports. To understand participants' internal motivations for their choices, we also asked them to indicate how appropriate he/she felt it would be to select the different music types as well as why they made such choices. Results suggested that participants in a sad mood were inclined to listen to sad (and slow) music, those in a happy mood preferred to listen to happy (and fast) music, and those in a neutral mood did not consistently prefer to listen to neutral music. In addition, participants were averse to sad music when they were in a happy or neutral mood; while they showed no aversion to happy music when they were in a sad mood. In conclusion, individuals select valence-consistent music when they are in an autobiographical memory-induced mood state.

The fronto-insular cortex causally mediates the default-mode and central-executive networks to contribute to individual cognitive performance in healthy elderly.

The triple network model that consists of the default-mode network (DMN), central-executive network (CEN), and salience network (SN) has been suggested as a powerful paradigm for investigation of network mechanisms underlying various cognitive functions and brain disorders. A crucial hypothesis in this model is that the fronto-insular cortex (FIC) in the SN plays centrally in mediating interactions between the networks. Using a machine learning approach based on independent component analysis and Bayesian network (BN), this study characterizes the directed connectivity architecture of the triple network and examines the role of FIC in connectivity of the model. Data-driven exploration shows that the FIC initiates influential connections to all other regions to globally control the functional dynamics of the triple network. Moreover, stronger BN connectivity between the FIC and regions of the DMN and the CEN, as well as the increased outflow connections from the FIC are found to predict individual performance in memory and executive tasks. In addition, the posterior cingulate cortex in the DMN was also confirmed as an inflow hub that integrates information converging from other areas. Collectively, the results highlight the central role of FIC in mediating the activity of large-scale networks, which is crucial for individual cognitive function.

Future Time Perspective Impacts Gain-Related but Not Loss-Related Intertemporal Choice.

Future time perspective (FTP) modulates individuals' temporal orientation in selecting their motivations and goals, which widely influences their cognitions and behaviors. However, it remains unclear how FTP exactly affects intertemporal choice. To clarify the effect of FTP on intertemporal choice, 90 college students (Mage = 21.70, SD = 1.23) were randomly assigned to the limited FTP condition (16 males, 29 females) and the open-ended FTP condition (17 males, 28 females). In the limited FTP condition, participants were instructed to imagine their states of being 70 years old, whereas in the open-ended FTP condition, they were instructed to describe their current states. All participants then completed a series of intertemporal choice tasks, in which they chose from gain- and loss-related choices occurring at various time points. Results showed that the participants who received the future-imagining manipulation had more limited FTP compared with those who did not receive the manipulation, which confirmed the validity of the FTP manipulation. A 2 (FTP: limited vs. open-ended) × 2 (type of choice: gain vs. loss) repeated measures ANOVA on discount rate revealed a significant interaction between these two factors. The participants in the limited FTP condition had higher discount rates on gain-related choices but showed no difference on loss-related choices compared with the participants under the open-ended FTP condition. The results suggest that limited FTP could lower individuals' future orientation (i.e., willingness to delay an outcome) on gain-related, but not on loss-related, intertemporal decision-making.

Audio-Visual Spatiotemporal Perceptual Training Enhances the P300 Component in Healthy Older Adults.

In older adults, cognitive abilities, such as those associated with vision and hearing, generally decrease with age. According to several studies, audio-visual perceptual training can improve perceived competence regarding visual and auditory stimuli, suggesting that perceptual training is effective and beneficial. However, whether audio-visual perceptual training can induce far-transfer effects in other forms of untrained cognitive processing that are not directly trained in older adults remains unclear. In this study, the classic P300 component, a neurophysiological indicator of cognitive processing of a stimulus, was selected as an evaluation index of the training effect. We trained both young and older adults on the ability to judge the temporal and spatial consistency of visual and auditory stimuli. P300 amplitudes were significantly greater in the posttraining session than in the pretraining session in older adults (P = 0.001). However, perceptual training had no significant effect (P = 0.949) on the P300 component in young adults. Our results illustrate that audio-visual perceptual training can lead to far-transfer effects in healthy older adults. These findings highlight the robust malleability of the aging brain, and further provide evidence to motivate exploration to improve cognitive abilities in older adults.

Linking Inter-Individual Variability in Functional Brain Connectivity to Cognitive Ability in Elderly Individuals.

Increasing evidence suggests that functional brain connectivity is an important determinant of cognitive aging. However, the fundamental concept of inter-individual variations in functional connectivity in older individuals is not yet completely understood. It is essential to evaluate the extent to which inter-individual variability in connectivity impacts cognitive performance at an older age. In the current study, we aimed to characterize individual variability of functional connectivity in the elderly and to examine its significance to individual cognition. We mapped inter-individual variability of functional connectivity by analyzing whole-brain functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging data obtained from a large sample of cognitively normal older adults. Our results demonstrated a gradual increase in variability in primary regions of the visual, sensorimotor, and auditory networks to specific subcortical structures, particularly the hippocampal formation, and the prefrontal and parietal cortices, which largely constitute the default mode and fronto-parietal networks, to the cerebellum. Further, the inter-individual variability of the functional connectivity correlated significantly with the degree of cognitive relevance. Regions with greater connectivity variability demonstrated more connections that correlated with cognitive performance. These results also underscored the crucial function of the long-range and inter-network connections in individual cognition. Thus, individual connectivity-cognition variability mapping findings may provide important information for future research on cognitive aging and neurocognitive diseases.

The more the better? A meta-analysis on effects of combined cognitive and physical intervention on cognition in healthy older adults.

Both cognitive intervention and physical exercise benefit cognitive function in older adults. It has been suggested that combined cognitive and physical intervention may induce larger effects than cognitive or physical intervention alone, but existing literature has shown mixed results. This meta-analysis aimed at assessing the efficacy of combined intervention on cognition by comparing combined intervention to control group, cognitive intervention and physical exercise. Eligible studies were controlled trials examining the effects of combined intervention on cognition in older adults without known cognitive impairment. Twenty interventional studies comprising 2667 participants were included. Results showed that the overall effect size for combined intervention versus control group was 0.29 (random effects model, p=0.001). Compared to physical exercise, combined intervention produced greater effects on overall effect size (0.22, p<0.01), while no significant difference was found between combined intervention and cognitive intervention. Effects of combined intervention were moderated by age of participants, intervention frequency and setting. The findings suggest that combined intervention demonstrates advantages over control group and physical exercise, while evidence is still lacking for superiority when compared combined intervention to cognitive intervention. More well-designed studies with long follow-ups are needed to clarify the potential unique efficacy of combined intervention for older adults.

The Role of Inhibition in Age-related Off-Topic Verbosity: Not Access but Deletion and Restraint Functions.

The speech of older adults is commonly described as verbose and off-topic, which is thought to influence their social communication. This study investigated the role of inhibition in age-related off-topic verbosity (OTV). Inhibition consists of three functions: access, deletion, and restraint. The access function is responsible for preventing irrelevant information from accessing the attention center (pre-mechanism of inhibition); The deletion function is responsible for deleting previously relevant but currently irrelevant information from working memory, and the restraint function is responsible for restraining strong but inappropriate responses (post-mechanisms of inhibition). A referential communication task was used to determine whether OTV was influenced by the pre-mechanism of inhibition. A self-involved event interview task was used to investigate the effect of the post-mechanisms of inhibition on OTV. Results showed that the OTV of the elderly participants was associated with an age-related decline in the post-mechanisms of inhibition, while the OTV exhibited by young adults was most likely due to deficits in the pre-mechanism function of inhibition. This research contributed to fill gaps in the existing knowledge about the potential relationship between specific functions of inhibition and age-related OTV.

Spontaneous activity in the precuneus predicts individual differences in verbal fluency in cognitively normal elderly.

OBJECTIVE: The precuneus is 1 of the major cortical hubs and plays an important role in normal aging and verbal fluency processing. The main aim of present study was to investigate how intrinsic brain activity in the precuneus at rest predicts individual differences in verbal fluency ability among elderly adults. METHOD: Regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) analysis and a correlation-based functional connectivity (FC) approach were used to analyze data acquired from 101 cognitively normal elderly. RESULTS: ALFF in the precuneus declined with normal aging and was significantly correlated with individual differences in performance on the verbal fluency test (VFT). Specifically, ALFF in the precuneus was reduced in elderly with high fluency (HF) ability compared with those with low fluency (LF) ability. In addition, the HF individuals displayed increased functional connectivity of the precuneus with the lateral temporal area and prefrontal lobe, including the inferior frontal, medial frontal, superior temporal, middle temporal, and superior frontal gyri. CONCLUSION: Spontaneous activity in the precuneus could predict individual differences in verbal fluency processing. Our results suggest that spontaneous activity in the precuneus is an indicator of aging-related changes in semantic verbal fluency processing, or even a potential biomarker for the early detection of semantic verbal fluency deterioration.

Combined cognitive-psychological-physical intervention induces reorganization of intrinsic functional brain architecture in older adults.

Mounting evidence suggests that enriched mental, physical, and socially stimulating activities are beneficial for counteracting age-related decreases in brain function and cognition in older adults. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate the functional plasticity of brain activity in response to a combined cognitive-psychological-physical intervention and investigated the contribution of the intervention-related brain changes to individual performance in healthy older adults. The intervention was composed of a 6-week program of combined activities including cognitive training, Tai Chi exercise, and group counseling. The results showed improved cognitive performance and reorganized regional homogeneity of spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in the superior and middle temporal gyri, and the posterior lobe of the cerebellum, in the participants who attended the intervention. Intriguingly, the intervention-induced changes in the coherence of local spontaneous activity correlated with the improvements in individual cognitive performance. Taken together with our previous findings of enhanced resting-state functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe regions following a combined intervention program in older adults, we conclude that the functional plasticity of the aging brain is a rather complex process, and an effective cognitive-psychological-physical intervention is helpful for maintaining a healthy brain and comprehensive cognition during old age.

Visuospatial characteristics of an elderly Chinese population: results from the WAIS-R block design test.

Visuospatial deficits have long been recognized as a potential predictor of dementia, with visuospatial ability decline having been found to accelerate in later stages of dementia. We, therefore, believe that the visuospatial performance of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia (Dem) might change with varying visuospatial task difficulties. This study administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Block Design Test (BDT) to determine whether visuospatial ability can help discriminate between MCI patients from Dem patients and normal controls (NC). Results showed that the BDT could contribute to the discrimination between MCI and Dem. Specifically, simple BDT task scores could best distinguish MCI from Dem patients, while difficult BDT task scores could contribute to discriminating between MCI and NC. Given the potential clinical value of the BDT in the diagnosis of Dem and MCI, normative data stratified by age and education for the Chinese elderly population are presented for use in research and clinical settings.

Intervention-induced enhancement in intrinsic brain activity in healthy older adults.

This study examined the effects of a multimodal intervention on spontaneous brain activity in healthy older adults. Seventeen older adults received a six-week intervention that consisted of cognitive training, Tai Chi exercise, and group counseling, while 17 older adults in a control group attended health knowledge lectures. The intervention group demonstrated enhanced memory and social support compared to the control group. The amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in the middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and anterior cerebellum lobe was enhanced for the intervention group, while the control group showed reduced ALFF in these three regions. Moreover, changes in trail-making performance and well-being could be predicted by the intervention-induced changes in ALFF. Additionally, individual differences in the baseline ALFF were correlated with intervention-related changes in behavioral performance. These findings suggest that a multimodal intervention is effective in improving cognitive functions and well-being and can induce functional changes in the aging brain. The study extended previous training studies by suggesting resting-state ALFF as a marker of intervention-induced plasticity in older adults.

Multimodal intervention in older adults improves resting-state functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe.

The prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe are particularly vulnerable to the effects of aging. The disconnection between them is suggested to be an important cause of cognitive decline in normal aging. Here, using multimodal intervention training, we investigated the functional plasticity in resting-state connectivity of these two regions in older adults. The multimodal intervention, comprised of cognitive training, Tai Chi exercise, and group counseling, was conducted to explore the regional connectivity changes in the default-mode network, as well as changes in prefrontal-based voxel-wise connectivity in the whole brain. Results showed that the intervention selectively affected resting-state functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe. Moreover, the strength of resting-state functional connectivity between these regions correlated with individual cognitive performance. Our results suggest that multimodal intervention could postpone the effects of aging and improve the function of the regions that are most heavily influenced by aging, as well as play an important role in preserving the brain and cognition during old age.