Calso Cristina, Besnard Jérémy, Allain Philippe
Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays-de-Loire (EA 4638), Université d'Angers, Maison des sciences humaines, Angers, France.
Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays-de-Loire (EA 4638), Université d'Angers, Maison des sciences humaines, Angers, France, Unité de neuropsychologie, Département de neurologie, CHU d'Angers, France.
Geriatr Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil. 2016 Mar;14(1):77-85. doi: 10.1684/pnv.2016.0586.
Normal aging in individuals is often associated with morphological, metabolic and cognitive changes, which particularly concern the cerebral frontal regions. Starting from the "frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging" (West, 1996), the present review is based on the neuroanatomical model developed by Stuss (2008), introducing four categories of frontal lobe functions: executive control, behavioural and emotional self-regulation and decision-making, energization and meta-cognitive functions. The selected studies only address the changes of one at least of these functions. The results suggest a deterioration of several cognitive frontal abilities in normal aging: flexibility, inhibition, planning, verbal fluency, implicit decision-making, second-order and affective theory of mind. Normal aging seems also to be characterised by a general reduction in processing speed observed during neuropsychological assessment (Salthouse, 1996). Nevertheless many cognitive functions remain preserved such as automatic or non-conscious inhibition, specific capacities of flexibility and first-order theory of mind. Therefore normal aging doesn't seem to be associated with a global cognitive decline but rather with a selective change in some frontal systems, conclusion which should be taken into account for designing caring programs in normal aging.
个体的正常衰老通常与形态、代谢和认知变化相关，这些变化尤其涉及大脑额叶区域。从“认知衰老的额叶假说”（韦斯特，1996年）出发，本综述基于斯图斯（2008年）提出的神经解剖学模型，介绍了四类额叶功能：执行控制、行为和情绪自我调节与决策、精力激发和元认知功能。所选研究仅涉及这些功能中至少一项的变化。结果表明，在正常衰老过程中，几种额叶认知能力会下降：灵活性、抑制能力、规划能力、语言流畅性、内隐决策、二阶和情感心理理论。正常衰老似乎还表现为在神经心理学评估中观察到的处理速度普遍下降（萨尔托斯，1996年）。然而，许多认知功能仍然保留，如自动或无意识抑制、特定的灵活性能力和一阶心理理论。因此，正常衰老似乎并非与整体认知衰退相关，而是与某些额叶系统的选择性变化有关，这一结论在设计针对正常衰老的护理方案时应予以考虑。
