Oltmanns Jan, Godde Ben, Winneke Axel H, Richter Götz, Niemann Claudia, Voelcker-Rehage Claudia, Schömann Klaus, Staudinger Ursula M
Human Resources Management, Daimler AGBremen, Germany; Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University BremenBremen, Germany.
Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University Bremen Bremen, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2017 Feb 6;8:117. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00117. eCollection 2017.
Cognitive and brain aging is strongly influenced by everyday settings such as work demands. Long-term exposure to low job complexity, for instance, has detrimental effects on cognitive functioning and regional gray matter (GM) volume. Brain and cognition, however, are also characterized by plasticity. We postulate that the experience of novelty (at work) is one important trigger of plasticity. We investigated the cumulative effect of recurrent exposure to work-task changes (WTC) at low levels of job complexity on GM volume and cognitive functioning of middle-aged production workers across a time window of 17 years. In a case-control study, we found that amount of WTC was associated with better processing speed and working memory as well as with more GM volume in brain regions that have been associated with learning and that show pronounced age-related decline. Recurrent novelty at work may serve as an '' intervention that helps counteracting debilitating long-term effects of low job complexity.
认知和大脑衰老受到诸如工作要求等日常环境的强烈影响。例如，长期暴露于低工作复杂度环境对认知功能和局部灰质（GM）体积有不利影响。然而，大脑和认知也具有可塑性。我们推测（工作中的）新奇体验是可塑性的一个重要触发因素。我们研究了在17年的时间跨度内，低工作复杂度水平下反复接触工作任务变化（WTC）对中年生产工人GM体积和认知功能的累积影响。在一项病例对照研究中，我们发现WTC的量与更好的处理速度和工作记忆相关，也与大脑中与学习相关且显示出明显年龄相关性衰退的区域中更多的GM体积相关。工作中的反复新奇体验可能作为一种“干预措施”，有助于抵消低工作复杂度带来的长期衰弱影响。
