Journal
JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages 52-61Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S1355617700611062
Keywords
cognitive aging; brain MRI; fluid intelligence; frontal lobe; executive ability; working memory
Categories
Funding
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING [R01AG011859] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NIA NIH HHS [R01 AG 11859] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
One theory of normal cognitive aging asserts that decreases in simple processing speed mediate the age-related decline of fluid intelligence. Another possibility is that age-related atrophic changes in frontal brain structures undermine the functioning of executive abilities, thereby producing the same decline. Tn this study, we used principal components analysis to derive a measure of fluid-spatial intelligence in 197 normal adults between 20 and 92 years of age. Measures of perceptual comparison speed, working memory, and executive ability, as well ns regional brain volumes based on high resolution magnetic resonance imaging were obtained from a subsample of 112 participants. We then conducted a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses to test whether (1) the processing speed theory, (2) frontal-executive theory, or (3) some combination of these best accounted for age-related variation in fluid intelligence. The results showed that perceptual comparison speed, executive ability, and frontal lobe volume each made significant contributions to a regression equation that explained 57% of the variance in fluid intelligence. These findings suggest that both the processing speed and frontal-executive theory of cognitive aging are partially correct and complement one another.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available