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The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age
Executive functions demonstrate variable developmental and aging profiles, with protracted development into early adulthood and declines in older age. However, relatively few studies have specifically included middle-aged adults in investigations of age-related differences in executive functions. Th...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7809200/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33446798 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80866-1 |
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author | Ferguson, Heather J. Brunsdon, Victoria E. A. Bradford, Elisabeth E. F. |
author_facet | Ferguson, Heather J. Brunsdon, Victoria E. A. Bradford, Elisabeth E. F. |
author_sort | Ferguson, Heather J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Executive functions demonstrate variable developmental and aging profiles, with protracted development into early adulthood and declines in older age. However, relatively few studies have specifically included middle-aged adults in investigations of age-related differences in executive functions. This study explored the age-related differences in executive function from late childhood through to old age, allowing a more informed understanding of executive functions across the lifespan. Three hundred and fifty participants aged 10 to 86 years-old completed a battery of tasks assessing the specific roles of inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. Results highlighted continued improvement in working memory capacity across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by declines in both working memory and inhibitory control, beginning from as early as 30–40 years old and continuing into older age. Analyses of planning abilities showed continued improvement across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by a decline in abilities across adulthood, with a small (positive) change in older age. Interestingly, a dissociation was found for cognitive flexibility; switch costs decreased, yet mixing costs increased across the lifespan. The results provide a description of the developmental differences in inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility and planning, above any effects of IQ or SES, and highlight the importance of including middle-aged adults in studies seeking to establish a more comprehensive picture of age-related differences in executive function. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7809200 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78092002021-01-15 The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age Ferguson, Heather J. Brunsdon, Victoria E. A. Bradford, Elisabeth E. F. Sci Rep Article Executive functions demonstrate variable developmental and aging profiles, with protracted development into early adulthood and declines in older age. However, relatively few studies have specifically included middle-aged adults in investigations of age-related differences in executive functions. This study explored the age-related differences in executive function from late childhood through to old age, allowing a more informed understanding of executive functions across the lifespan. Three hundred and fifty participants aged 10 to 86 years-old completed a battery of tasks assessing the specific roles of inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. Results highlighted continued improvement in working memory capacity across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by declines in both working memory and inhibitory control, beginning from as early as 30–40 years old and continuing into older age. Analyses of planning abilities showed continued improvement across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by a decline in abilities across adulthood, with a small (positive) change in older age. Interestingly, a dissociation was found for cognitive flexibility; switch costs decreased, yet mixing costs increased across the lifespan. The results provide a description of the developmental differences in inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility and planning, above any effects of IQ or SES, and highlight the importance of including middle-aged adults in studies seeking to establish a more comprehensive picture of age-related differences in executive function. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7809200/ /pubmed/33446798 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80866-1 Text en © Crown 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Ferguson, Heather J. Brunsdon, Victoria E. A. Bradford, Elisabeth E. F. The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title | The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title_full | The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title_fullStr | The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title_full_unstemmed | The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title_short | The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
title_sort | developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7809200/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33446798 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80866-1 |
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