Júlio Filipa, Ribeiro Maria J, Simões Mário R, Castelo-Branco Miguel, Januário Cristina
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2023 Oct 17:1-11. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2023.2265521.
More realistic assessment tools are imperative for a better understanding of the impact of age-related cognitive deficits on functional status. With this in mind, we probed the ability of the , a non-immersive virtual environment task with increasing executively demanding kitchen chores, to detect the effects of aging on the simulated everyday functioning of healthy adults. Fifty-three adults (age between 23 and 77 years) were assessed with the and a set of conventional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests. The associations between the baseline features of study participants and each of the two different assessment methods were examined. The associations between the variables and an executive composite score were also explored. Our results showed that older individuals present deficits in the performance of both the task and standard assessment methods. Notably, we found that, unlike conventional tests, accuracy in the task was not related to the education level and IQ score of participants. Moreover, the performance time was significantly correlated with executive tests. We have demonstrated that the task, an ecologically relevant computerized neuropsychological assessment tool, might be more suitable than classic paper-and-pencil tests to capture the impact of aging on everyday cognitive function, as it proved to be less prone to the influence of confounding factors. Additionally, we have shown that executive function plays an important role in the timely performance of cognitively challenging virtual environment tasks.
为了更好地理解与年龄相关的认知缺陷对功能状态的影响，更现实的评估工具势在必行。考虑到这一点，我们探究了一种非沉浸式虚拟环境任务（该任务包含要求越来越高的厨房杂务执行任务）检测衰老对健康成年人模拟日常功能影响的能力。五十三名成年人（年龄在23岁至77岁之间）接受了该任务和一组传统的纸笔神经心理学测试评估。研究参与者的基线特征与两种不同评估方法各自之间的关联进行了检验。还探究了该任务变量与执行综合评分之间的关联。我们的结果表明，老年人在该任务和标准评估方法的表现上均存在缺陷。值得注意的是，我们发现，与传统测试不同，该任务的准确性与参与者的教育水平和智商分数无关。此外，该任务的表现时间与执行测试显著相关。我们已经证明，该任务作为一种与生态相关的计算机化神经心理学评估工具，可能比经典的纸笔测试更适合捕捉衰老对日常认知功能的影响，因为事实证明它更不易受到混杂因素的影响。此外，我们已经表明，执行功能在及时完成具有认知挑战性的虚拟环境任务中起着重要作用。
