Hetrick Lena M, Chen Haiying, Levin Ilana, Lockhart Samuel N, Miller Michael E, Laurienti Paul J, Kritchevsky Stephen B, Hugenschmidt Christina E, Zukowski Lisa A
Department of Neuroscience, High Point University, High Point, NC, USA.
Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2025 Jul 15;9:25424823251356597. doi: 10.1177/25424823251356597. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.
In healthy older adults (OA), the effects of amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition on cognitive functions involved in learning are unclear.
This study aimed to determine how age, practice, and neuropsychological test performance are associated with performance change during the learning of three cognitive tasks, and if Aβ deposition impacts performance change in OA.
Fifty-five OA and 28 young adults completed neuropsychological tests, and Aβ deposition was assessed in OA. Participants learned three cognitive tasks: stop-go normal task (SGNT), stop-go reverse task (SGRT), and -back task (NBT). Performance change was analyzed as change in accuracy and reaction time from the first to second and the first to third practice trials using linear mixed effect models. The basic model included age group and performance change, with neuropsychological test covariates. The second basic model mimicked the first but included Aβ deposition, instead of age group.
In the basic model, more practice resulted in a larger performance change for SGNT and SGRT, but not NBT. In the second basic model, after two NBT practice trials, performance change increased with greater amounts of Aβ deposition and worse information processing speed but, after three practice trials, decreased with greater amounts of Aβ deposition and worse information processing speed. Across the three tasks, greater Aβ deposition tended (non-significant trend) to be associated with smaller improvements after more practice.
These results suggest that the ability to learn a cognitive task is maintained with age but is negatively impacted by Aβ deposition.
在健康的老年人中，淀粉样β蛋白（Aβ）沉积对学习相关认知功能的影响尚不清楚。
本研究旨在确定年龄、练习次数和神经心理学测试表现如何与三项认知任务学习过程中的表现变化相关，以及Aβ沉积是否会影响老年人的表现变化。
55名老年人和28名年轻人完成了神经心理学测试，并对老年人的Aβ沉积进行了评估。参与者学习了三项认知任务：停止-继续正常任务（SGNT）、停止-继续反向任务（SGRT）和数字广度任务（NBT）。使用线性混合效应模型分析从第一次到第二次以及第一次到第三次练习试验中准确性和反应时间的变化作为表现变化。基本模型包括年龄组和表现变化，以及神经心理学测试协变量。第二个基本模型模仿第一个模型，但包括Aβ沉积，而非年龄组。
在基本模型中，更多的练习导致SGNT和SGRT的表现变化更大，但NBT并非如此。在第二个基本模型中，经过两次NBT练习试验后，表现变化随着Aβ沉积量的增加和信息处理速度的降低而增加，但在三次练习试验后，随着Aβ沉积量增加和信息处理速度降低而降低。在这三项任务中，更多练习后，更大的Aβ沉积倾向于（非显著趋势）与较小的改善相关。
这些结果表明，学习认知任务的能力随年龄保持，但受到Aβ沉积的负面影响。
