Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
BMC Neurosci. 2014 Jan 8;15:7. doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-15-7.
Research on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities whereas reactive control seems to remain intact. However, the reason of the differential age effect on cognitive control efficiency is still unclear. This study investigated the potential influence of fluid intelligence and processing speed on the selective age-related decline in proactive control. Eighty young and 80 healthy older adults were included in this study. The participants were submitted to a working memory recognition paradigm, assessing proactive and reactive cognitive control by manipulating the interference level across items.
Repeated measures ANOVAs and hierarchical linear regressions indicated that the ability to appropriately use cognitive control processes during aging seems to be at least partially affected by the amount of available cognitive resources (assessed by fluid intelligence and processing speed abilities).
This study highlights the potential role of cognitive resources on the selective age-related decline in proactive control, suggesting the importance of a more exhaustive approach considering the confounding variables during cognitive control assessment.
研究表明，认知控制中的前瞻性控制能力随年龄增长而下降，而反应性控制似乎保持不变。然而，认知控制效率的这种年龄差异的原因尚不清楚。本研究探讨了流体智力和加工速度对前瞻性控制选择性年龄下降的潜在影响。本研究纳入了 80 名年轻和 80 名健康的老年人。参与者接受了工作记忆识别范式的测试，通过在项目之间改变干扰水平来评估前瞻性和反应性认知控制。
重复测量方差分析和层次线性回归表明，在衰老过程中适当使用认知控制过程的能力至少部分受到可用认知资源的影响（通过流体智力和加工速度能力来评估）。
本研究强调了认知资源对前瞻性控制选择性年龄下降的潜在作用，这表明在认知控制评估中考虑混杂变量时，需要采用更详尽的方法。
