Department of Veterans Affairs and Sierra-Pacific MIRECC, Palo Alto, California, USA.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2010 May;16(3):412-23. doi: 10.1017/S1355617710000111. Epub 2010 Mar 2.
Previous studies have consistently reported age-related changes in cognitive abilities and brain structure. Previous studies also suggest compensatory roles for specialized training, skill, and years of education in the age-related decline of cognitive function. The Stanford/VA Aviation Study examines the influence of specialized training and skill level (expertise) on age-related changes in cognition and brain structure. This preliminary report examines the effect of aviation expertise, years of education, age, and brain size on flight simulator performance in pilots aged 45-68 years. Fifty-one pilots were studied with structural magnetic resonance imaging, flight simulator, and processing speed tasks. There were significant main effects of age (p < .01) and expertise (p < .01), but not of whole brain size (p > .1) or education (p > .1), on flight simulator performance. However, even though age and brain size were correlated (r = -0.41), age differences in flight simulator performance were not explained by brain size. Both aviation expertise and education were involved in an interaction with brain size in predicting flight simulator performance (p < .05). These results point to the importance of examining measures of expertise and their interactions to assess age-related cognitive changes.
先前的研究一直报告称认知能力和大脑结构会随年龄增长而发生变化。先前的研究还表明，专门的训练、技能和受教育年限在认知功能随年龄下降过程中起到补偿作用。斯坦福大学/退伍军人事务部航空研究（Stanford/VA Aviation Study）探讨了专门的训练和技能水平（专业能力）对认知和大脑结构随年龄变化的影响。本初步报告探讨了航空专业能力、受教育年限、年龄和大脑大小对 45-68 岁飞行员在飞行模拟器中的表现的影响。对 51 名飞行员进行了结构磁共振成像、飞行模拟器和处理速度任务的研究。飞行模拟器表现的主要影响因素有年龄（p <.01）和专业能力（p <.01），但大脑整体大小（p >.1）和受教育年限（p >.1）并无显著影响。然而，尽管年龄和大脑大小呈负相关（r = -0.41），但年龄对飞行模拟器表现的影响不能用大脑大小来解释。航空专业能力和受教育年限都与大脑大小存在交互作用，共同影响飞行模拟器的表现（p <.05）。这些结果表明，有必要检查专业能力及其相互作用的衡量标准，以评估与年龄相关的认知变化。
