Cognitive decline and human (Homo sapiens) aging: an investigation using a comparative neuropsychological approach.

Full Abstract

Using a comparative neuropsychological approach, the authors compared performance of younger and healthy older adults ages 65 and over on tasks originally developed to measure cognition in animals. A battery of 6 tasks was used to evaluate object discrimination, egocentric spatial abilities, visual and spatial working memory, and response shifting. Older adults performed more poorly than younger adults on tasks that evaluate egocentric spatial abilities, response shifting, and to a lesser extent object recognition. The two groups did not differ for tasks that evaluate spatial working memory and object discrimination. The impairments the authors observed in tasks that evaluate response shifting and object recognition are consistent with those found in canines and primates as well as those found in Alzheimer's disease. The results are consistent with the notion that cognitive processes supported by the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex are among the first to decline with increasing age in both humans and animals.

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Author information

Author/s: Boutet, Isabelle (I); Milgram, Norton W (NW); Freedman, Morris (M);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. iboutet@uottawa.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) (J Comp Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Aug; vol 121 (issue 3) : pp 270-81

Dates: Created 2007/08/16; Completed 2007/11/13;

PMID: 17696653, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Aging - psychology
Alzheimer Disease - psychology
Cognition
Cognition Disorders - physiopathology
Discrimination Learning
Female
Group Processes

Group Processes
Health Status
Humans - psychology
Learning
Male
Memory - physiology
Questionnaires
Space Perception

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