Normative data for the Rappel libre/Rappel indicé à 16 items (16-item Free and Cued Recall) in the elderly Quebec-French population.

Performance on verbal memory tests is generally associated with socio-demographic variables such as age, sex, and education level. Performance also varies between different cultural groups. The present study aimed to establish normative data for the Rappel libre/Rappel indicé à 16 items (16-item Free and Cued Recall; RL/RI-16), a French adaptation of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (Buschke, 1984; Grober, Buschke, Crystal, Bang, & Dresner, 1988).

Are stress and mixed urinary incontinence associated with impaired executive control in community-dwelling older women?

Objectives: To assess whether stress or mixed urinary incontinence (UI) is associated with deficits in executive functioning among community-dwelling women.

Design: An observational study comparing the performance, using multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) and Bonferroni post hoc test, of continent women and women with stress or mixed UI during executive control tasks.

Setting: The research center of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal.

The effect of three months of aerobic training on stroop performance in older adults.

Growing evidence supports the use of physical training interventions to improve both physical and cognitive performances in healthy older adults. Few studies have examined the impact of aerobic exercise on Stroop task performance, a measure of executive functions. In the current 3-month aerobic training study, 50 older adults (mean age = 67.

Attentional control in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: Attentional control, the ability to maintain goal-directedness in the face of distraction, has been shown to decline in normal aging (NA) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the nature and extent of deficits is under debate. This study investigated attentional control in NA and AD compared to healthy young adults in several tasks such as setting, suppressing, switching, and preparing attention.

Method: Fifty-two participants (17 AD, 17 NA, and 18 young participants) underwent the Tower of London, the Zoo map test, the Stroop test, letter verbal fluency, a computerized version of the Rule shift cards tests, the Trail making test, the Plus-minus test, and a reaction time task with variable preparatory intervals.

The effect of three months of aerobic training on response preparation in older adults.

This study assessed the effects of an aerobic training program on reaction time tasks that manipulated preparatory intervals (PI) to produce temporal preparation effects using short (1, 3, 5 s) and long (5, 7, 9 s) PI. Older adults were assigned to either a 3-month aerobic training group or to a control group. Individuals in the training group participated in an aerobic training program of three 60-min sessions per week.

A high level of physical fitness is associated with more efficient response preparation in older adults.

This study assessed the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and temporal preparation in elderly persons. 110 older adults (aged 60-69 or 70-79 years) were sorted into low- and high-fit groups based on aerobic fitness level estimated with a walking test. Response preparation processes were assessed with reaction time tasks in which short (1, 3, 5 s) and long (5, 7, 9 s) preparatory intervals varied randomly.

[Impact on physical fitness on cognitive aging].

Cognitive vitality is one of the determining factors of autonomy in the elderly. Aging is often accompanied by important changes in the central nervous system, which may lead to cognitive decline. Several factors seem however to modulate the effect of aging on cognition.