Shalev Nir, Brosnan Méadhbh B, Chechlacz Magdalena
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Cereb Cortex Commun. 2020;1(1):tgaa049. doi: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa049. Epub 2020 Aug 20.
Age-related deterioration of attention decreases the ability to stay focused on the task at hand due to less efficient selection of relevant information and increased distractibility in the face of irrelevant, but salient stimuli. While older (compared with younger) adults may have difficulty suppressing salient distractors, the extent of these challenges differs vastly across individuals. Cognitive reserve measured by proxies of cognitively enriching life experiences, such as education, occupation, and leisure activities, is thought to mitigate the effects of the aging process and account for variability in trajectories of cognitive decline. Based on combined behavioral and neuroimaging (voxel-based morphometry) analyses of demographic, cognitive, and neural markers of aging and cognitive reserve proxy measures, we examine here predictors of variability in the age-related changes in attention function, indexed by ability to suppress salient distraction. Our findings indicate that in healthy (neurotypical), aging gray matter volume within several right lateralized fronto-parietal brain regions varies according to both levels of cognitive reserve (education) and the capacity to effectively select visual stimuli amid salient distraction. Thus, we provide here novel experimental evidence supporting Robertson's theory of a right lateralized neural basis for cognitive reserve.
与年龄相关的注意力衰退会降低专注于手头任务的能力，这是因为相关信息的选择效率较低，并且在面对无关但显著的刺激时更容易分心。虽然老年人（与年轻人相比）可能难以抑制显著的干扰因素，但这些挑战的程度在个体之间差异很大。通过认知丰富的生活经历（如教育、职业和休闲活动）的代理指标衡量的认知储备，被认为可以减轻衰老过程的影响，并解释认知衰退轨迹的变异性。基于对衰老、认知储备代理指标的人口统计学、认知和神经标记物进行的行为和神经影像学（基于体素的形态测量）联合分析，我们在此研究以抑制显著干扰能力为指标的注意力功能与年龄相关变化的变异性预测因素。我们的研究结果表明，在健康（神经典型）的老年人中，几个右侧偏侧化的额顶叶脑区的灰质体积会根据认知储备水平（教育程度）以及在显著干扰中有效选择视觉刺激的能力而有所不同。因此，我们在此提供了新的实验证据，支持罗伯逊关于认知储备的右侧偏侧化神经基础的理论。
