Rabbitt P M, Scott M, Thacker N, Lowe C, Horan M, Pendleton N, Hutchinson D, Jackson A
University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, United Kingdom.
Neuropsychologia. 2006;44(10):1978-83. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.08.017. Epub 2006 May 22.
In healthy old age biomarkers such as Balance robustly correlate with measures of mental abilities such as scores on tests of intelligence, reaction times and memory. A plausible explanation is that balance reflects general physiological fitness and so also neurophysiological integrity, but direct evidence is lacking. Brain scans measured age-associated loss of brain volume and cerebro-arterial blood flow (CBf) in 69 volunteers aged from 62 to 81 years who also took the Tinetti Balance test battery, 3 tests of fluid intelligence, 3 tests of decision speed and a memory test. Balance, but not atrophy or CBf, predicted intelligence test scores. Balance, atrophy, and CBf all independently predicted speed and memory scores but, after variance in atrophy and CBf had been considered, predictions from Balance were no longer significant. It appears that in these tests Balance marks cognitive performance in old age because it reflects gross age-related neurophysiological changes.
在健康老年阶段，诸如平衡能力等生物标志物与心理能力指标（如智力测试得分、反应时间和记忆力）密切相关。一种合理的解释是，平衡反映了总体生理健康状况，因此也反映了神经生理完整性，但缺乏直接证据。脑部扫描测量了69名年龄在62岁至81岁之间志愿者的与年龄相关的脑容量损失和脑动脉血流量（CBf），这些志愿者还进行了Tinetti平衡测试组合、3项流体智力测试、3项决策速度测试和一项记忆测试。平衡能力而非脑萎缩或CBf能够预测智力测试得分。平衡能力、脑萎缩和CBf均能独立预测速度和记忆得分，但在考虑了脑萎缩和CBf的差异后，平衡能力的预测不再显著。似乎在这些测试中，平衡能力标志着老年时期的认知表现，因为它反映了与年龄相关的总体神经生理变化。
