2: Normal Aging and Cognition + Medication and Aging Flashcards

1
Q

What is happening with the older adult population in the US?

A

significant growth (secondary to factors such as falling birth rates, increased longevity)

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2
Q

What is the range for young old?

A

65-75

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3
Q

What is the range for middle old?

A

75-84

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4
Q

What is the range for old old?

A

85+

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5
Q

What were the top 3 leading causes of death in 2020?

A

1) heart disease
2) cancer
3) COVID-19

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6
Q

Brain slowing as a result of synaptic pruning is due to what?

A

learning and environmental factors

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7
Q

Grey matter volume peaks in the frontal and parietal lobes at age:

A

12

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8
Q

Grey matter volume peaks in the temporal lobes at age:

A

16

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9
Q

Grey matter volume peaks in the occipital lobes at age:

A

20

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10
Q

When does development “end”?

A

25

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11
Q

The emotional centers (or ________ regions) develop before the ___________ regions. And _____ peak before _____.

A

limbic
prefrontal
girls, boys

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12
Q

What does the emotional center development before prefrontal regions lead to?

A

risky behaviors, decreased self-regulation

substance use typically starts

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13
Q

When do we see first episode of psychiatric disorders and drug use?

A

Adolesence

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14
Q

What is happening in the adolescent brain?

A

synaptic pruning (unused connections are eliminated, what you do with your time directly affects prefrontal wiring)

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15
Q

When is myelination of the parietal lobe completed?

A

adolescence

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16
Q

When is myelination of the frontal lobe completed

A

not until the 30s

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17
Q

What area of the brain is most vulnerable to atrophy as we age?

A

frontal lobe

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18
Q

Where does our highest level of cognitive thought occur?

A

frontal lobe

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19
Q

Effective and efficient cognitive function depends on what 4 things?

A

1) degree of myelination
2) integrity of white matter
3) density and richness of synaptic connections
4) specificity of synaptic pruning

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20
Q

What is crystalized intelligence?

A

dependent on learning and culture

reflects experience, knowledge, comprehension, judgement, and wisdom

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21
Q

How does crystalized intelligence change throughout the lifespan?

A

rises until age 70 +/-

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22
Q

What is fluid intelligence?

A

ability to identify complex relations/situations and make conclusions/inferences on the basis of the comprehension

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23
Q

What is fluid intelligence measured by?

A

cognitive tasks

not really general knowledge

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24
Q

How does fluid intelligence change across the lifespan?

A

declines from mid 20s on

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25
Q

What are the 2 views of cognitive change over the lifespan?

A

1) crystallized and fluid intelligence (separate)

2) representation and control (interact)

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26
Q

What is representation intelligence?

A

set of crystalized schemas that are the basis for memory and knowledge of the world

27
Q

How does representation intelligence change across the lifespan?

A

maintained as we age but some is lost due to lack of use

28
Q

What is control intelligence?

A

set of fluid operations that enable intentional processing and adaptive cognitive performance

29
Q

How does control intelligence change across the lifespan?

A

increases in power, speed, and complexity

develop at different ages and decline at different rates

30
Q

What are inhibition deficits that might occur with aging?

A

weakened inhibitory processes make it harder to suppress irrelevant information (distractions are more difficult to ignore)

31
Q

What are 2 examples of distractions that might be hard to ignore when inhibition deficits occur?

A

1) changes in typeface

2) dialectal differences

32
Q

What is neighborhood density?

A

Based on words around a word that differ by 1 phoneme (low density word = wolf, high density word = cat - bat, mat, etc.)

33
Q

Is it harder to retrieve words from high or low density neighborhoods?

A

high

34
Q

What are transmission deficits?

A

cognitive change with aging secondary to memory connections being weakened meaning poorer activation of target info

35
Q

What is tip of the tongue syndrome?

A

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

36
Q

What is tip of the tongue syndrome most frequent with recalling (2)?

A

1) names

2) infrequently used words

37
Q

What is cognitive slowing (3)?

A

1) slower processing speed
2) reduced attention abilities
3) reduced working memory

38
Q

When does cognitive slowing really cause increased difficulty?

A

when information is presented at a faster rate

39
Q

Older adults have less _____________ resources available to them, which makes them more dependent on what?

A

processing

top down processing

40
Q

What is scaffolding?

A

compensatory strategy, occurs over lifespan, supports existing systems and forms new connections

41
Q

What did an fMRI study on scaffolding show?

A

young adults had focal left prefrontal activity

older adults had bilateral left and right prefrontal activity

42
Q

Why does scaffolding occur? (4)

A

1) brain structures show volumetric shrinkage
2) white matter loses density
3) decrease in gray matter
4) neurofibrilary plaques and tangles

43
Q

In older adults we mostly see what 3 things?

A

1) increased frontal activity
2) increased bilateral involvement
3) less neural specificity

44
Q

Scaffolding is not just a response to normal aging but also ____________

A

challenges

45
Q

Cortical activation in young children tends to be ___________

A

bilateral

46
Q

When do cortical activations stop being bilateral and become more focal?

A

when greater expertise is developed

47
Q

When do more bilateral activation patterns become seen again?

A

With increased age

48
Q

What are potential challenges that can lead to use of scaffolding? (8)

A

1) sleep deprivation
2) advanced biological aging
3) higher level of task demands
4) stress
5) depression
6) genetics
7) disease
8) adverse experiences

49
Q

What are 2 positive factors that can influence brain function?

A

1) physical fitness

2) cognitive stimulation

50
Q

What is the efficiency of scaffolding networks

A

Less efficient than well developed cognitive networks

51
Q

What 3 subtests/tasks did old old participants not fall into WNL for? But…

A

attention, memory, and language

but still healthy and lived independently

52
Q

What are 5 cognitive strengths with aging?

A

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

53
Q

What group of older adults are poorest at naming pictured objects?

A

less educated and institutionalized

54
Q

What is the most common complaint in older adults cognitively?

A

tip of the tongue phenomenon

55
Q

What are 3 spelling and written language changes that can occur in older adults?

A

1) longer sentences/clauses read may not be understood
2) writing may become more simple
3) errors for irregular spelled words

56
Q

How might speed of processing be affected?

A

slower

57
Q

What is episodic memory

A

recall of episodes or events

58
Q

What are changes in older adults with episodic memory?

A

forgetting short term things (where they put something, what someone said)

59
Q

What is working memory?

A

ability to manipulate, store, and transfer pieces of information

60
Q

How might working memory be affected in older age?

A

mental math

small amounts fine, larger/complex not

61
Q

How might executive function be affected in older age?

A

generally do poorer on neuropsychological tests - however doesn’t correlate with real life function

62
Q

What are 6 factors that can influence cognitive performance?

A

1) hearing
2) background noise
3) multiple speakers
4) context
5) dialect
6) rate

63
Q

How can health impact aging?

A

poor health = faster rate of aging

64
Q

What are 6 health factors that can cause fast aging?

A

1) diabetes
2) heart disease
3) overweight
4) smoking
5) no access to healthcare
6) genetic predisposition