Aging
Conditions
Interventions
Group 1: Split over 2 testing sessions (1 to 7 days apart), three age groups (young: 20 - 40 years
middle-aged: 40-60 years
old: 60 - 80 Jahre) are administered computer-based neuropsychological tests for the following cognitive functions: relational integration, working memory capacity, processing speed, interference reso
old: 70 - 75 years) complete a behavioural testing session. In addition, a subsample of these participants complete a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) session (time between testing sessions: 3 to 14 d
Sponsors
Institut für Medizinische Psychologie und Medizinische Soziologie, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
20 Years to 80 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: sufficient vision/hearing and language abilities (as all cognitive tests are based mainly on visuo-spatial stimuli, German native language is not required, but language abilities have to be sufficient to understand test instructions)
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: - colour blindness - non-correctable/uncorrected ophthalmologic conditions (e.g., glaucoma, cataract, macular degeneration) - lifetime diagnosis of neurological disorder/event (incl. concussion with loss of consciousness >5 min or persisting cognitive sequelae such as memory/attention problems) - present psychiatric disorder and/or psychotherapy - past psychiatric disorder requiring hospitalisation or less than 1 year in remission - psychotropic medication - poorly-controlled diabetes type I - untreated hypertension - major somatic condition - general anaesthesia within the last 3 months - decimal acuity 9, carried out by the Patient Health Questionnaire–Depression (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001) - MoCA score < 23, measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nasreddine et al., 2005)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| arm 1: behavioural performance (accuracy and reaction times) in two tasks measuring relational integration (RI) arm 2: neural activity as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an RI task | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| arm 1: behavioural performance (accuracy and reaction times) in further cognitive tasks measuring working memory capacity, processing speed, interference control, planning ability and fluid reasoning arm 2: behavioural performance (accuracy and reaction times) in cognitive RI task; grey matter volume and reconstructed number of white matter fibres for task-relevant brain areas as measured with T1- and diffusion-weighted MR sequences, respectively | — |
Countries
Germany
Contacts
Public ContactLena Schumacher
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Outcome results
None listed