Sex Matters: Association with Superager Classification and Risk Factors.

Superagers are 80 to 89-year-olds with average or better cognition and memory equivalent to individuals 20 to 30 years younger. As sex and modifiable lifestyle/health factors influence cognitive aging and dementia risk, we examined their impact on superager status. Data from participants (n = 469; 67% female) aged 80-89 years old were analyzed from an online database that included demographic and dementia risk factors, and performance on tasks assessing working memory, cognitive inhibition, associative memory, and set shifting.

Menopause Status and Within-Group Differences in Chronological Age Affect the Functional Neural Correlates of Spatial Context Memory in Middle-Aged Females.

Reductions in the ability to encode and retrieve past experiences in rich spatial contextual detail (episodic memory) are apparent by midlife-a time when most females experience spontaneous menopause. Yet, little is known about how menopause status affects episodic memory-related brain activity at encoding and retrieval in middle-aged premenopausal and postmenopausal females, and whether any observed group differences in brain activity and memory performance correlate with chronological age within group. We conducted an event-related task fMRI study of episodic memory for spatial context to address this knowledge gap.

Web-based cognitive assessment in older adults: Where do we stand?

Purpose Of Review: The use of digital tools for remote cognitive measurement of older adults is generating increasing interest due to the numerous advantages offered for accessibility and scalability. However, these tools also pose distinctive challenges, necessitating a thorough analysis of their psychometric properties, feasibility and acceptability.

Recent Findings: In this narrative review, we present the recent literature on the use of web-based cognitive assessment to characterize cognition in older adults and to contribute to the diagnosis of age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

The adverse effect of modifiable dementia risk factors on cognition amplifies across the adult lifespan.

Background: Reversible lifestyle behaviors (modifiable risk factors) can reduce dementia risk by 40%, but their prevalence and association with cognition throughout the adult lifespan is less well understood.

Methods: The associations between the number of modifiable risk factors for dementia (low education, hypertension, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, alcohol or substance abuse, diabetes, smoking, and depression) and cognition were examined in an online sample ( = 22,117, ages 18-89).

Findings: Older adults (ages 66-89) had more risk factors than middle-aged (ages 45-65) and younger adults (ages 18-44).

Sex differences and modifiable dementia risk factors synergistically influence memory over the adult lifespan.

Introduction: More women than men develop Alzheimer's disease, yet women perform better and show less decline on episodic memory measures, a contradiction that may be accounted for by modifiable risk factors for dementia.

Methods: Associations among age, sex, modifiable dementia risk factors, and cognition were measured in a cross-sectional online sample (= 21,840, ages 18 to 89).

Results: Across four tests of associative memory and executive functions, only a Face-Name Association task revealed sex differences in associative memory that varied by age.

Interindividual and intraindividual variability in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) measured with an online cognitive assessment.

Introduction: Mean cognitive performance is worse in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to control groups. However, studies on variability of cognitive performance in aMCI have yielded inconclusive results, with many differences in variability measures and samples from one study to another.

Methods: We examined variability in aMCI using an existing older adult sample ( = 91; 51 with aMCI, 40 with normal cognition for age), measured with an online self-administered computerized cognitive assessment (Cogniciti's Brain Health Assessment).

When I'm 64: Age-Related Variability in Over 40,000 Online Cognitive Test Takers.

Objectives: Age-related differences in cognition are typically assessed by comparing groups of older to younger participants, but little is known about the continuous trajectory of cognitive changes across age, or when a shift to older adulthood occurs. We examined the pattern of mean age differences and variability on episodic memory and executive function measures over the adult life span, in a more fine-grained way than past group or life-span comparisons.

Method: We used a sample of over 40,000 people aged 18-90 who completed psychometrically validated online tests measuring episodic memory and executive functions (the Cogniciti Brain Health Assessment).