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. 2020 Oct;32(9):1029-1041.
doi: 10.1177/0898264319878095. Epub 2019 Oct 8.

Cognitive Diversity in a Healthy Aging Cohort: Cross-Domain Cognition in the Cam-CAN Project

Meredith A Shafto  1 , Richard N Henson  2 , Fiona E Matthews  3 , Jason R Taylor  4 , Tina Emery  2 , Sharon Erzinclioglu  2 , Claire Hanley  5 , James B Rowe  1   2   6 , Rhodri Cusack  7 , Andrew J Calder  2 , William D Marslen-Wilson  1   2 , John Duncan  2   8 , Tim Dalgleish  2 , Carol Brayne  1 , Cam-Can  9 , Lorraine K Tyler  1
Affiliations

Cognitive Diversity in a Healthy Aging Cohort: Cross-Domain Cognition in the Cam-CAN Project

Meredith A Shafto et al. J Aging Health. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: Studies of "healthy" cognitive aging often focus on a limited set of measures that decline with age. The current study argues that defining and supporting healthy cognition requires understanding diverse cognitive performance across the lifespan. Method: Data from the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) cohort was examined across a range of cognitive domains. Performance was related to lifestyle including education, social engagement, and enrichment activities. Results: Results indicate variable relationships between cognition and age (positive, negative, or no relationship). Principal components analysis indicated maintained cognitive diversity across the adult lifespan, and that cognition-lifestyle relationships differed by age and domain. Discussion: Our findings support a view of normal cognitive aging as a lifelong developmental process with diverse relationships between cognition, lifestyle, and age. This reinforces the need for large-scale studies of cognitive aging to include a wider range of both ages and cognitive tasks.

Keywords: cognitive function; cognitive reserve; healthy aging; lifestyle; principal components analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cross-domain factor scores by sampling decile: (a) Factor l: Fluid Abilities; (b) Factor 2: Naming; (c) Factor 3: Crystallized Abilities; and (d) Factor 4: Sentence Comprehension.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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