Remote Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Cognition in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background: Adults with cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVRFs) are also at increased risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia. However, it is often difficult to study the relationships between CVRFs and cognitive function because cognitive assessment typically requires time-consuming in-person neuropsychological evaluations that may not be feasible for real-world situations.

Objective: We conducted a proof-of-concept study to determine if the association between CVRFs and cognitive function could be detected using web-based, self-administered cognitive tasks and CVRF assessment.

Incident dementia and faster rates of cognitive decline are associated with worse multisensory function summary scores.

Introduction: We created a summary score for multiple sensory (multisensory) impairment and evaluated its association with dementia.

Methods: We studied 1794 adults aged 70 to 79 who were dementia-free at enrollment and followed for up to 10 years in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. The multisensory function score (0 to 12 points) was based on sample quartiles of objectively measured vision, hearing, smell, and touch summed overall.

Interventions involving a major dietary component improve cognitive function in cognitively healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Accumulating evidence suggests a role for diet in promoting brain health. The purpose of this systematic review was to (1) quantitatively assess whether interventions with a major dietary component can enhance cognition in cognitively healthy adults and (2) identify responsive domains of cognition to inform the design of future dietary trials. Electronic databases were systematically searched to find eligible randomized controlled trials that assessed the effect of interventions with a major dietary component on cognitive function or incident dementia in adults without known cognitive impairment.

Conscientiousness Is Associated with Lower Risk of Dementia among Black and White Older Adults.

Background: While some personality traits may reduce risk of dementia, this is controversial and has not been studied as much among diverse populations. We examined associations between 2 traits - Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience - and risk of dementia among black and white older adults.

Methods: We studied 875 older adults (ages 71-82, 47% black) without prevalent dementia from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study, who completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory for Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience.

Systematic Multi-Domain Alzheimer's Risk Reduction Trial (SMARRT): Study Protocol.

This article describes the protocol for the Systematic Multi-domain Alzheimer's Risk Reduction Trial (SMARRT), a single-blind randomized pilot trial to test a personalized, pragmatic, multi-domain Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk reduction intervention in a US integrated healthcare delivery system. Study participants will be 200 higher-risk older adults (age 70-89 years with subjective cognitive complaints, low normal performance on cognitive screen, and ≥ two modifiable risk factors targeted by our intervention) who will be recruited from selected primary care clinics of Kaiser Permanente Washington, oversampling people with non-white race or Hispanic ethnicity. Study participants will be randomly assigned to a two-year Alzheimer's risk reduction intervention (SMARRT) or a Health Education (HE) control.

Multiple Sensory Impairment Is Associated With Increased Risk of Dementia Among Black and White Older Adults.

Background: Few studies have examined impairment in multiple senses (multisensory impairment) and risk of dementia in comparison to having a single or no sensory impairment.

Methods: We studied 1,810 black and white nondemented participants from Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study aged 70-79 years at enrollment. Sensory impairment was determined at our study baseline (Year 3-5 of Health ABC) using established cut points for vision (Bailey-Lovie visual acuity and Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity test), hearing (audiometric testing), smell (12-item Cross-Cultural Smell Identification Test), and touch (peripheral nerve function tests).

Occupational cognitive complexity in earlier adulthood is associated with brain structure and cognitive health in midlife: The CARDIA study.

Objective: In line with cognitive reserve theory, higher occupational cognitive complexity is associated with reduced cognitive decline in older adulthood. How and when occupational cognitive complexity first exerts protective effects during the life span remains unclear. We investigated associations between occupational cognitive complexity during early to midadulthood and brain structure and cognition in midlife.

Interactive Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychiatric Symptoms on Cognition among Late Middle-Aged Men: Findings from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depressive symptoms each increase the risk for cognitive impairment in older adults. We investigated whether TBI has long-term associations with cognition in late middle-aged men, and examined the role of current PTSD/depressive symptoms. Participants were 953 men (ages 56-66) from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA), who were classified by presence or absence of (1) history of TBI and (2) current elevated psychiatric symptoms (defined as PTSD or depressive symptoms above cutoffs).

Neuropsychological Profile of Lifetime Traumatic Brain Injury in Older Veterans.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize the neuropsychological profile of lifetime traumatic brain injury (TBI) in older Veterans.

Methods: Participants were 169 older Veterans [mean age=79.1 years (range, 51-97 years), 89% male, 92% Caucasian], 88 with lifetime TBI and 81 without TBI, living in Veterans' retirement homes in independent residence.

Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults and Risk of Dementia.

Importance: Depression has been identified as a risk factor for dementia. However, most studies have measured depressive symptoms at only one time point, and older adults may show different patterns of depressive symptoms over time.

Objective: To investigate the association between trajectories of depressive symptoms and risk of dementia in older adults.

Memory complaints and risk of cognitive impairment after nearly 2 decades among older women.

Objectives: To investigate the association between subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and long-term risk of cognitive impairment in aging because most previous studies have followed individuals for only a few years.

Methods: Participants were 1,107 cognitively normal, community-dwelling older women (aged 65 years and older at baseline) in a prospective study of aging. SMCs were assessed shortly after baseline and repeatedly over time with the yes/no question, "Do you feel you have more problems with memory than most?" Cognitive status 18 years later (normal or impaired with mild cognitive impairment or dementia) was determined by an expert panel.

Cognitive resilience to apolipoprotein E ε4: contributing factors in black and white older adults.

Importance: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 is an established risk factor for cognitive decline and the development of dementia, but other factors may help to minimize its effects.

Objective: Using APOE ε4 as an indicator of high risk, we investigated factors associated with cognitive resilience among black and white older adults who are APOE ε4 carriers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Participants included 2487 community-dwelling older (aged 69-80 years at baseline) black and white adults examined at 2 community clinics in the prospective cohort Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study.

Brain functional correlates of working memory: reduced load-modulated activation and deactivation in aging without hyperactivation or functional reorganization.

We aimed to identify brain functional correlates of working memory performance in aging, in hopes of facilitating understanding of mechanisms that promote better versus worse working memory in late-life. Among 64 healthy adults, aged 23 to 78, we examined the relationship between age, working memory performance, and brain functional response during task performance. We focused on the association between working memory load-modulated functional response and individual differences in performance and whether these function-performance relationships differed with age.

From suffering to caring: a model of differences among older adults in levels of compassion.

Objective: Compassion is an important contributor to pro-social behavior and maintenance of interpersonal relationships, yet little is known about what factors influence compassion in late life. The aim of this study was to test theories about how past and current stressors and emotional functioning, resilience, and demographic indicators of life experiences are related to compassion among older adults.

Methods: One thousand and six older adults (50-99 years) completed a comprehensive survey including self-report measures of compassion, resilience, past and present stress, and emotional functioning (i.

Brains of optimistic older adults respond less to fearful faces.

The authors examined the neural correlates of emotion processing and how they relate to individual differences in optimism among older adults. Brain response during processing of fearful faces was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging in 16 older adults and was correlated with level of optimism. Greater optimism was associated with reduced activation in the fusiform gyrus and frontal regions, which may reflect decreased salience of negative emotional information or better emotion regulation among optimistic individuals.

Older adults with limited literacy are at increased risk for likely dementia.

Background: Low literacy is common among the elderly and possibly more reflective of educational attainment than years of school completed. We examined the association between literacy and risk of likely dementia in older adults.

Methods: Participants were 2,458 black and white elders (aged 71-82) from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study, who completed the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine and were followed for 8 years.

Compensatory brain activity during encoding among older adults with better recognition memory for face-name pairs: an integrative functional, structural, and perfusion imaging study.

Many neuroimaging studies interpret the commonly reported findings of age-related increases in frontal response and/or increased bilateral activation as suggestive of compensatory neural recruitment. However, it is often unclear whether differences are due to compensation or reflective of other cognitive or physiological processes. This study aimed to determine whether there are compensatory age-related changes in brain systems supporting successful associative encoding while taking into account potentially confounding factors including age-related differences in task performance, atrophy, and resting perfusion.

Decisional capacity and consent for schizophrenia research.

Background: Despite substantial research on overall decision-making capacity (DMC) levels in schizophrenia, factors causing individuals to make errors during decision-making regarding research participation or treatment are relatively unknown.

Methods: We examined the responses of 84 middle-aged and older patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder on a structured DMC measure—the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research—to determine the frequency and apparent cause of patients’ errors.

Results: Most errors were due to difficulty recalling the disclosed information (seen in 65.

Genetic and environmental contributions to regional cortical surface area in humans: a magnetic resonance imaging twin study.

Cortical surface area measures appear to be functionally relevant and distinct in etiology, development, and behavioral correlates compared with other size characteristics, such as cortical thickness. Little is known about genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in regional surface area in humans. Using a large sample of adult twins, we determined relative contributions of genes and environment on variations in regional cortical surface area as measured by magnetic resonance imaging before and after adjustment for genetic and environmental influences shared with total cortical surface area.

A review of functional brain imaging correlates of successful cognitive aging.

Preserved cognitive performance is a key feature of successful aging. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain the putative underlying relationship between brain function and performance. We aimed to review imaging studies of the association between brain functional response and cognitive performance among healthy younger and older adults to understand the neural correlates of successful cognitive aging.

A review of the brain structure correlates of successful cognitive aging.

Unimpaired cognition is an important feature of successful aging. Differences in cognitive performance among healthy older adults may be related to differences in brain structure. The authors reviewed the literature to examine the relationship between brain-structure size and cognitive performance in older adults.

Schizophrenia patients lack normal positive correlation between age and brain response during verbal learning.

Objective: To investigate the differences in the relationship of age to brain function among individuals with schizophrenia and a healthy comparison group. The authors hypothesized that the correlation with age would be more strongly negative among schizophrenia patients, particularly in the frontal cortex.

Design: Cross-sectional measures of functional MRI (fMRI) brain response were correlated with age in both groups.