Mapping of Structure-Function Age-Related Connectivity Changes on Cognition Using Multimodal MRI.

The relationship between age-related changes in brain structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) with cognition is not well understood. Furthermore, it is not clear whether cognition is represented a similar spatial pattern of FC and SC or instead is mapped by distinct sets of distributed connectivity patterns. To this end, we used a longitudinal, within-subject, multimodal approach aiming to combine brain data from diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), and functional MRI (fMRI) with behavioral evaluation, to better understand how changes in FC and SC correlate with changes in cognition in a sample of older adults.

Socio-Emotional Competencies and School Performance in Adolescence: What Role for School Adjustment?

There is growing evidence in the literature of positive relationships between socio-emotional competencies and school performance. Several hypotheses have been used to explain how these variables may be related to school performance. In this paper, we explored the role of various school adjustment variables in the relationship between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades, using a weighted network approach.

Harmonizing neuropsychological assessment for mild neurocognitive disorders in Europe.

Introduction: Harmonized neuropsychological assessment for neurocognitive disorders, an international priority for valid and reliable diagnostic procedures, has been achieved only in specific countries or research contexts.

Methods: To harmonize the assessment of mild cognitive impairment in Europe, a workshop (Geneva, May 2018) convened stakeholders, methodologists, academic, and non-academic clinicians and experts from European, US, and Australian harmonization initiatives.

Results: With formal presentations and thematic working-groups we defined a standard battery consistent with the U.

The relationship of obesity predicting decline in executive functioning is attenuated with greater leisure activities in old age.

We investigated the longitudinal relationship between obesity and subsequent decline in executive functioning over six years as measured through performance changes in the Trail Making Test (TMT). We also examined whether this longitudinal relationship differed by key markers of cognitive reserve (education, occupation, and leisure activities), taking into account age, sex, and chronic diseases as covariates. We used latent change score modeling based on longitudinal data from 897 older adults tested on TMT parts A and B in two waves six years apart.

Cognitive Reserve Mediates the Relation between Openness to Experience and Smaller Decline in Executive Functioning.

Aims: We investigated the mediating role of leisure activity engagement in the longitudinal relation between openness to experience and subsequent change in executive functioning over 6 years as measured through performance changes in the Trail Making Test (TMT).

Methods: We analyzed longitudinal data from 897 older adults (mean = 74.33 years in the first wave) tested on TMT parts A and B in two waves 6 years apart.

Moderating Effect of Cortical Thickness on BOLD Signal Variability Age-Related Changes.

The time course of neuroanatomical structural and functional measures across the lifespan is commonly reported in association with aging. Blood oxygen-level dependent signal variability, estimated using the standard deviation of the signal, or "BOLD," is an emerging metric of variability in neural processing, and has been shown to be positively correlated with cognitive flexibility. Generally, BOLD is reported to decrease with aging, and is thought to reflect age-related cognitive decline.

Distinct effects of cognitive versus somatic anxiety on cognitive performance in old age: the role of working memory capacity.

The adverse effects of anxiety on cognition are widely recognized. According to Attentional Control Theory, worry (i.e.

Nicotine increases sleep spindle activity.

Studies have shown that both nicotine and sleep spindles are associated with enhanced memorisation. Further, a few recent studies have shown how cholinergic input through nicotinic and muscarinic receptors can trigger or modulate sleep processes in general, and sleep spindles in particular. To better understand the interaction between nicotine and sleep spindles, we compared in a single blind randomised study the characteristics of sleep spindles in 10 healthy participants recorded for 2 nights, one with a nicotine patch and one with a sham patch.

Motivation as a Mediator of the Relation Between Cognitive Reserve and Cognitive Performance.

Objectives: Interindividual differences in cognitive aging may be explained by differences in cognitive reserve (CR) that are built up across the life span. A plausible but underresearched mechanism for these differences is that CR helps compensating cognitive decline by enhancing motivation to cope with challenging cognitive situations. Theories of motivation on cognition suggest that perceived capacity and intrinsic motivation may be key mediators in this respect.

Does the insula contribute to emotion-related distortion of time? A neuropsychological approach.

The literature points to a large distributed brain network involved in the estimation of time. Among these regions, the role of the insular cortex is still poorly understood. At the confluence of emotional, interoceptive, and environmental signals, this brain structure has been proposed to underlie awareness of the passage of time and emotion related time dilation.

Cross-lagged relation of leisure activity participation to Trail Making Test performance 6 years later: Differential patterns in old age and very old age.

Objective: We investigated cross-lagged relations between leisure activity participation and Trail Making Test (TMT) performance over 6 years and whether those reciprocal associations differed between individuals.

Method: We analyzed data from 232 participants tested on performance in TMT Parts A and B as well as interviewed on leisure activity participation in 2 waves 6 years apart. Mean age in the Wave 1 was 73.

Intra-Individual Variability from a Lifespan Perspective: A Comparison of Latency and Accuracy Measures.

Within-task variability across trials (intra-individual variability (IIV)) has been mainly studied using latency measures but rarely with accuracy measures. The aim of the Geneva Variability Study was to examine IIV in both latency and accuracy measures of cognitive performance across the lifespan, administering the same tasks to children, younger adults, and older adults. Six processing speed tasks (Response Time (RT) tasks, 8 conditions) and two working memory tasks scored in terms of the number of correct responses (Working Memory (WM)-verbal and visuo-spatial, 6 conditions), as well as control tasks, were administered to over 500 individuals distributed across the three age periods.

Individual Differences in Developmental Change: Quantifying the Amplitude and Heterogeneity in Cognitive Change across Old Age.

It is well known that cognitive decline in older adults is of smaller amplitude in longitudinal than in cross-sectional studies. Yet, the measure of interest rests generally with aggregated group data. A focus on individual developmental trajectories is rare, mainly because it is difficult to assess intraindividual change reliably.

Leisure Activities and Change in Cognitive Stability: A Multivariate Approach.

Aging is traditionally associated with cognitive decline, attested by slower reaction times and poorer performance in various cognitive tasks, but also by an increase in intraindividual variability (IIV) in cognitive performance. Results concerning how lifestyle activities protect from cognitive decline are mixed in the literature and all focused on how it affects mean performance. However, IIV has been proven to be an index more sensitive to age differences, and very little is known about the relationships between lifestyle activities and change in IIV in aging.

Dispersion in cognitive functioning: Age differences over the lifespan.

Introduction: A growing body of research suggests that intraindividual variability (IIV) may bring specific information on cognitive functioning, additional to that provided by the mean. The present paper focuses on dispersion, that is IIV across tasks, and its developmental trend across the lifespan.

Method: A total of 557 participants (9-89 years) were administered a battery of response time (RT) tasks and of working memory (WM) tasks.

Working memory and intraindividual variability in processing speed: A lifespan developmental and individual-differences study.

Working memory (WM) and intraindividual variability (IIV) in processing speed are both hypothesized to reflect general attentional processes. In the present study, we aimed at exploring the relationship between WM capacity and IIV in reaction times (RTs) and its possible variation with development across the lifespan. Two WM tasks and six RT tasks of varying complexity were analyzed in a sample of 539 participants, consisting of five age groups: two groups of children (9-10 and 11-12 years of age), one group of young adults, and two groups of older adults (59-69 and 70-89 years of age).

Cognitive intraindividual variability and white matter integrity in aging.

The intraindividual variability (IIV) of cognitive performance has been shown to increase with aging. While brain research has generally focused on mean performance, little is known about neural correlates of cognitive IIV. Nevertheless, some studies suggest that IIV relates more strongly than mean level of performance to the quality of white matter (WM).

Empathy for Pain from Adolescence through Adulthood: An Event-Related Brain Potential Study.

Affective and cognitive empathy are traditionally differentiated, the affective component being concerned with resonating with another's emotional state, whereas the cognitive component reflects regulation of the resulting distress and understanding of another's mental states (see Decety and Jackson, 2004 for a review). Adolescence is a critical period for the development of cognitive control processes necessary to regulate affective processes: it is only in young adulthood that these control processes achieve maturity (Steinberg, 2005). Thus, one should expect adolescents to show greater automatic empathy than young adults.

Subjectivity of time perception: a visual emotional orchestration.

The aim of the present study was to examine how visual emotional content could orchestrate time perception. The experimental design allowed us to single out the share of emotion in the specific processing of content-bearing pictures, i.e.

How emotional auditory stimuli modulate time perception.

Emotional and neutral sounds rated for valence and arousal were used to investigate the influence of emotions on timing in reproduction and verbal estimation tasks with durations from 2 s to 6 s. Results revealed an effect of emotion on temporal judgment, with emotional stimuli judged to be longer than neutral ones for a similar arousal level. Within scalar expectancy theory (J.