Department Psychobiology-IDOCAL, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Department Psychobiology-IDOCAL, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Teruel, Spain.
Neuropsychologia. 2023 Sep 9;188:108655. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108655. Epub 2023 Jul 26.
Openness to experience has been consistently associated with better cognitive functioning in older people, but its association with cognitive decline is less clear. Cognitive reserve has been proposed as a mechanism underlying this relationship, but previous studies have reported mixed findings, possibly due to the different ways of conceptualizing cognitive reserve. We aimed to analyze the potential mediating role of cognitive reserve in the association between openness and cognitive functioning and decline in healthy older people.
In Wave 1 and at the four-year follow-up (Wave 2), 87 healthy older people (49.4% women; M age = 65.08, SD = 4.54) completed a neuropsychological battery to assess cognitive functioning and a questionnaire to assess cognitive reserve. Openness was measured with the NEO- Five-Factor Inventory. Mediation models were proposed to investigate the relationship between openness and cognitive function or decline through cognitive reserve or its change.
Cognitive reserve mediated the openness-cognitive functioning association. Thus, individuals with higher openness showed greater cognitive reserve, and this greater cognitive reserve was associated with better cognitive functioning. Moreover, greater cognitive reserve at baseline also mediated the association between higher openness and slower cognitive decline. However, change in cognitive reserve did not mediate the association between openness and change in cognitive functioning.
Cognitive reserve is a mechanism underlying the association between openness and cognitive functioning and decline. These findings support the differential preservation hypothesis, suggesting that healthy older adults who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities would show less age-related cognitive decline.
开放性一直与老年人更好的认知功能相关，但它与认知衰退的关系尚不清楚。认知储备被认为是这种关系的一种机制，但先前的研究报告结果不一，这可能是由于对认知储备的不同概念化方式。我们旨在分析认知储备在开放性与认知功能和健康老年人认知衰退之间的关系中的潜在中介作用。
在第 1 波和 4 年随访（第 2 波）中，87 名健康老年人（49.4%为女性；平均年龄=65.08，标准差=4.54）完成了一项神经心理学测试，以评估认知功能，并完成了一份评估认知储备的问卷。开放性用 NEO-五因素人格量表进行测量。提出了中介模型，以通过认知储备或其变化来调查开放性与认知功能或衰退之间的关系。
认知储备中介了开放性与认知功能之间的关系。因此，开放性较高的个体表现出更高的认知储备，而这种更高的认知储备与更好的认知功能相关。此外，较高的认知储备也中介了较高的开放性与较慢的认知衰退之间的关系。然而，认知储备的变化并没有中介开放性与认知功能变化之间的关系。
认知储备是开放性与认知功能和衰退之间关系的一种机制。这些发现支持了差异保护假说，表明参与更多认知刺激活动的健康老年人表现出的与年龄相关的认知衰退较少。
