Robbins T W, James M, Owen A M, Sahakian B J, McInnes L, Rabbitt P
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
Dementia. 1994 Sep-Oct;5(5):266-81. doi: 10.1159/000106735.
The CANTAB battery was administered to a large group (n = 787) of elderly volunteers in the age range from 55 to 80 years. This battery, which is based on tests used to identify the neural substrates of learning and memory in non-human primates, has now been extensively used in the assessment of various forms of dementia and also validated on patients with neurosurgical lesions of the frontal and temporal lobes. The tests employed were pattern and spatial recognition, simultaneous and delayed matching to sample, learning of visuospatial paired associates, a matching to sample, reaction time task and a test of spatial working memory. The sample was banded into different IQ bands based on performance on 5 standard tests of intelligence. The MMSE was also administered to exclude cases of possible dementia (n = 16) in the normal sample. In general, performance declined with age and IQ, but these factors did not interact. A factor analysis (with varimax rotation) identified 4 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, which accounted for over 60% of the variance. Factor 1 was equated with general learning and memory ability and loaded significantly with the Intelligence scores; factor 2 was related to speed of responding and loaded most heavily with Age. Comparisons were also made of performance on CANTAB of those subjects with dementing scores on the MMSE and the lowest 5th percentile of the population sample. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of the CANTAB battery for the assessment of dementia and of the implications for theories of changes in cognitive function during normal aging.
对年龄在55至80岁的一大组（n = 787）老年志愿者进行了剑桥神经心理测试自动化成套系统（CANTAB）测试。该成套测试基于用于识别非人类灵长类动物学习和记忆神经基质的测试，现已广泛用于评估各种形式的痴呆症，并且在额叶和颞叶神经外科病变患者中得到验证。所采用的测试包括图案和空间识别、同时和延迟的样本匹配、视觉空间配对联想学习、样本匹配、反应时间任务以及空间工作记忆测试。根据5项标准智力测试的表现，将样本划分为不同的智商区间。还进行了简易精神状态检查表（MMSE）测试，以排除正常样本中可能患有痴呆症的病例（n = 16）。总体而言，表现随年龄和智商下降，但这些因素没有相互作用。因子分析（采用方差最大化旋转）确定了4个特征值大于1的因子，它们占方差的60%以上。因子1等同于一般学习和记忆能力，与智力得分有显著相关性；因子2与反应速度有关，与年龄的相关性最强。还比较了MMSE得分呈痴呆状态的受试者和总体样本中最低的第5百分位数受试者在CANTAB测试中的表现。从CANTAB成套测试在痴呆症评估中的效用以及对正常衰老过程中认知功能变化理论的影响方面对结果进行了讨论。
