Department of Psychiatry, Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging, University of California, San Diego.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder.
Neuropsychology. 2018 Jan;32(1):18-30. doi: 10.1037/neu0000389. Epub 2017 Aug 31.
Research on executive functions (EFs) has revealed evidence for general abilities that underlie performance across multiple EF tasks and domains. This Common EF factor is highly stable in adolescence through young adulthood, correlates with other important cognitive abilities, and is explained largely by genetic influences. However, little is known about Common EF beyond young adulthood. This study examines 3 hypotheses regarding the latent structure, genetic/environmental etiology, and cognitive correlates of Common EF in middle age.
We examined data from 1,284 middle-aged twins (51-60 years) in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging who completed 7 neuropsychological measures of EFs, as well as measures of general cognitive ability and processing speed.
Our confirmatory factor analysis indicated that Common EF explained variation across all 7 EF tasks. Inhibition and shifting were subsumed entirely under the Common EF factor, and there was an additional working memory span-specific factor. Common EF was heritable in midlife (a2 = .46), with additional evidence for both shared environmental influences (c2 = .41) and nonshared environmental influences (e2 = .13). Higher Common EF was moderately associated with higher general cognitive ability, measured both in early adulthood and midlife, and faster processing speed in midlife. These correlations were primarily driven by shared genetic influences.
These results support the hypothesis that Common EF captures similar EF abilities in midlife as in adolescence and young adulthood. However, environmental influences may explain a larger portion of variance in this construct as individuals age. (PsycINFO Database Record
执行功能（EFs）的研究揭示了普遍能力的证据，这些能力是在多个 EF 任务和领域中表现的基础。这种普遍 EF 因素在青少年到成年早期非常稳定，与其他重要的认知能力相关，并且主要由遗传影响来解释。然而，人们对成年后期以外的普遍 EF 知之甚少。本研究检验了关于中年普遍 EF 的潜在结构、遗传/环境病因和认知相关性的 3 个假设。
我们研究了参加越南时代衰老双胞胎研究的 1284 对中年双胞胎（51-60 岁）的数据，这些双胞胎完成了 7 项神经心理学执行功能测试，以及一般认知能力和加工速度测试。
我们的验证性因素分析表明，普遍 EF 解释了所有 7 项 EF 任务的变化。抑制和转换完全包含在普遍 EF 因素中，还有一个额外的工作记忆广度特定因素。普遍 EF 在中年时期具有遗传性（a2=.46），还有共享环境影响（c2=.41）和非共享环境影响（e2=.13）的额外证据。较高的普遍 EF 与较高的一般认知能力中度相关，这些认知能力是在成年早期和中年时期测量的，并且与中年时期的加工速度较快相关。这些相关性主要是由共同的遗传影响驱动的。
这些结果支持了普遍 EF 在中年时期捕捉到与青少年和成年早期相似的 EF 能力的假设。然而，随着个体年龄的增长，环境影响可能会解释这一结构中更大的变异部分。
