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Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias).
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Cognitive function in normal aging and in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

Soledad Ballesteros, Julia Mayas and José Manuel Reales

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Background: In this study, we investigated the effects of normal and pathological (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) aging on several cognitive functions (processing speed, executive control and implicit memory). Method: Twenty young adults, 20 healthy older adults and 20 elders with MCI performed a series of cognitive tasks under controlled conditions. These tasks were simple and choice reaction time, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and an implicit memory task for attended and unattended objects at encoding. Results: The MCI group showed pronounced declines in processing speed and executive control tasks. Interestingly, young and healthy older participants showed repetition priming for stimuli that were attended at encoding, but the MCI group did not. Conclusions: In this latter group, the lack of repetition priming for attended objects in the implicit memory task resembled that of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and suggests an early deficit of selective attention that might be a marker of pathological aging.

Función cognitiva en mayores sanos y con déficit cognitivo leve. Antecedentes: en este estudio investigamos los efectos del envejecimiento sano y patológico (déficit cognitivo leve, DCL) en varias funciones cognitivas (control ejecutivo, velocidad de procesamiento y memoria implícita). Método: veinte adultos jóvenes, 20 mayores sanos y 20 mayores DCL realizaron una serie de tareas cognitivas bajo condiciones controladas. Estas tareas fueron tiempo de reacción simple y de elección, el Test Wisconsin y una tarea de memoria implícita para objetos atendidos y no atendidos durante la codificación. Resultados: el grupo DCL mostró declives pronunciados en las tareas de velocidad de procesamiento y de control ejecutivo. Además, los jóvenes y los mayores sanos mostraron priming para los objetos atendidos durante la codificación estimular, pero no los mayores con DCL. Conclusiones: en este último grupo, la falta de priming de repetición para objetos atendidos en la tarea de memoria implícita fueron similares a los de los enfermos de Alzheimer (EA) y sugieren la existencia de un déficit temprano de la atención selectiva en mayores DCL, lo que podría ser un marcador del envejecimiento patológico.

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Impact factor 2022:  JCR WOS 2022:  FI = 3.6 (Q2);  JCI = 1.21 (Q1) / SCOPUS 2022:  SJR = 1.097;  CiteScore = 6.4 (Q1)