PY0547: How Effective are Recent Cognitive Training Programs for Maintaining or Improving Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Psychobiology Essay, NU, Singapore

Questions: How effective are recent cognitive training programs for maintaining or improving cognitive function in older adults?.

• Identify the importance of an ever-increasing aging society;
• Consider what memory declines with aging;
• Contrast ‘normal’ with ‘pathological’ aging;
• Are there any effective interventions to improve memory decline in the elderly?

Defining old age: Elderly: the term refers to over 65’s (demarcation point is social policy-oriented).

The population of the UK is getting older: The number of people aged 60 or over is projected to rise by over 50 percent next 25 years. A number of people aged 60+ is expected to pass the 20 million mark by 2031. The population over 75 is projected to double in the next 30 years. The number of people over 85 in the UK is predicted to double in the next 20 years and nearly treble in the next 30 years. In the US, the number of seniors expected to double by 2050.

At the same time, the information age requires more organizational skills to deal with basic needs, such as medical care, paying bills, engaging in some type of social life. Therefore the cognitive changes that accompany getting old may be very costly to a person.

What Memory Declines with Ageing?

Memory loss is one of the most frequent complaints in older adults, which involves both the difficulty reported in trying to recall to-be-remembered items as well as ‘holding things in your mind’ over relatively short periods. Short-term verbal and visual memory span does decline with age, but not dramatically e.g. mean digit span dropping from 6.6 to 5.8 items when young adults (mean 19.2 years) were compared with older adults (mean 74.2 years) in adulthood (Parkinson, Inman, and Dannenbaum, 1985). Craik (1986) found a minimal drop in memory span for words in an elderly population, with a significant increase when the words were semantically related (cited in Baddeley et al, 2015).

Working Memory (WM) and Executive Function (EF) decline. WM and EF declines begin fairly early in the aging process, starting in middle age, then becomes more pronounced in older aged individuals.

In Elderly people: Difficulty arises when dual-tasking,

compared to separately Deficits more pronounced when WM maintenance systems taxed by Thus, cognitive changes with advancing age may be ‘costly’, forcing retirement from demanding careers and jeopardizing the independent living of the person in an increasingly complex society. Transferring information from long-term memory – consciousness (e.g. where did I leave my car keys this time?), or keeping in mind a recent event (e.g. remembering a new phone number), becomes more difficult with aging.

The basis for declines: Executive Functions decline

Prefrontal/frontal cortex responsible: Pathological Ageing: Alzheimer’s Disease. AD is a progressive illness that involves significant physical, cognitive, and social declines. AD is thought to grow significantly over the next 40 years and poses significant challenges to the health care system (Brookmeyer, Johnson, Ziegler-Graham, & Arrighi, 2007). Early symptoms of AD include memory dysfunction, irritability, and general cognitive declines. These progressively decline as the disease progresses. Damage to the brain includes the brain becomes

The basis for declines: Executive Functions decline
Prefrontal/frontal cortex responsible:

Pathological Ageing: Alzheimer’s Disease. AD is a progressive illness that involves significant physical, cognitive, and social declines. AD is thought to grow significantly over the next 40 years and poses significant challenges to the health care system (Brookmeyer, Johnson, Ziegler-Graham, & Arrighi, 2007). Early symptoms of AD include memory dysfunction, irritability, and general cognitive declines. These progressively decline as the disease progresses. Damage to the brain includes the brain becomes.

Can we improve memory in the elderly? Interventions that can reliably improve cognitive function provide the chance to substantially improve the health and quality of life of older individuals. Early attempts at reminiscence therapy and reality orientation helped improve self-esteem and feelings of well-being, but no memory improvements.

Training methods directed at specific memory capabilities have shown to improve cognitive function on a range of memory tasks, such as working memory, speed of processing, and spatial abilities, among other cognitive neuropsychological domains showing early age decline. Such approaches also include teaching mnemonic strategies used to aid remembering. Typically these early studies tended to target specific abilities, with efficacy rates reported as very mixed ranging from one or two months, up to 1 year. [See e.g. Verghaeghen et al., 1992; see also: Craik, et al 2007).