Dataset Information

Creativity across the lifespan: changes with age and with dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is well known that older age is associated with losses in cognitive functioning. Less is known about the extent to which creativity is changing with age or dementia. Aim of the current study was to gain more insights into psychometric aspects of creativity in younger and older people as well as people with dementia.

Method

Our sample comprised three groups, (1) participants between age 18-30 years (n = 24), (2) participants 65 + years without cognitive impairment (n = 24), and (3) participants 65 + years with cognitive impairment / dementia (n = 23). Cognitive abilities were assessed via the Standard Progressive Matrices Test (SPM), Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCa), and Trail Making Test (TMT). Creativity was assessed via the Creative Reasoning Task (CRT), Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), and Alternate Uses Task (AUT).

Results

Compared to younger people, older people scored significantly lower in only two out of eleven creativity sub-scores (one in the CRT and one in the TCT-DP). Performance in the SPM was significantly associated with these two sub-scores and age. Cognitively impaired older people had significantly lower scores in the creativity task AUT compared to cognitively healthy older people and younger people. The associations between MoCa and AUT scores were also significant.

Conclusion

Creativity appears relatively stable in older age, with exception of those creativity skills that are affected by abstract reasoning (SPM), which appear susceptible to aging. As our findings suggest, cognitive impairment in older age might impair only some aspects of creativity with other creativity aspects being comparable to cognitively healthy people. The age-related and the cognitive status-related effects seem to be independent. The preserved creative abilities can be used in dementia care programs.

SUBMITTER: Ross SD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10035174 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Creativity across the lifespan: changes with age and with dementia.

Ross Sabrina D SD Lachmann Thomas T Jaarsveld Saskia S Riedel-Heller Steffi G SG Rodriguez Francisca S FS

BMC geriatrics 20230322 1

<h4>Background</h4>It is well known that older age is associated with losses in cognitive functioning. Less is known about the extent to which creativity is changing with age or dementia. Aim of the current study was to gain more insights into psychometric aspects of creativity in younger and older people as well as people with dementia.<h4>Method</h4>Our sample comprised three groups, (1) participants between age 18-30 years (n = 24), (2) participants 65 + years without cognitive impairment (n ...[more]

PMID: 36949404

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Project description:ImportanceThe neurological substrates of visual artistic creativity (VAC) are unknown. VAC is demonstrated here to occur early in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and multimodal neuroimaging is used to generate a novel mechanistic hypothesis involving dorsomedial occipital cortex enhancement. These findings may illuminate a novel mechanism underlying human visual creativity.ObjectiveTo determine the anatomical and physiological underpinnings of VAC in FTD.Design, setting, and participantsThis case-control study analyzed records of 689 patients who met research criteria for an FTD spectrum disorder between 2002 and 2019. Individuals with FTD and emergence of visual artistic creativity (VAC-FTD) were matched to 2 control groups based on demographic and clinical parameters: (1) not visually artistic FTD (NVA-FTD) and (2) healthy controls (HC). Analysis took place between September 2019 to December 2021.Main outcomes and measuresClinical, neuropsychological, genetic, and neuroimaging data were analyzed to characterize VAC-FTD and compare VAC-FTD with control groups.ResultsOf 689 patients with FTD, 17 (2.5%) met VAC-FTD inclusion criteria (mean [SD] age, 65 [9.7] years; 10 [58.8%] female). NVA-FTD (n = 51; mean [SD] age, 64.8 [7] years; 25 [49.0%] female) and HC (n = 51; mean [SD] age, 64.5 [7.2] years; 25 [49%] female) groups were well matched to VAC-FTD demographically. Emergence of VAC occurred around the time of onset of symptoms and was disproportionately seen in patients with temporal lobe predominant degeneration (8 of 17 [47.1%]). Atrophy network mapping identified a dorsomedial occipital region whose activity inversely correlated, in healthy brains, with activity in regions found within the patient-specific atrophy patterns in VAC-FTD (17 of 17) and NVA-FTD (45 of 51 [88.2%]). Structural covariance analysis revealed that the volume of this dorsal occipital region was strongly correlated in VAC-FTD, but not in NVA-FTD or HC, with a volume in the primary motor cortex corresponding to the right-hand representation.Conclusions and relevanceThis study generated a novel hypothesis about the mechanisms underlying the emergence of VAC in FTD. These findings suggest that early lesion-induced activation of dorsal visual association areas may predispose some patients to the emergence of VAC under certain environmental or genetic conditions. This work sets the stage for further exploration of enhanced capacities arising early in the course of neurodegeneration.

Dataset Information

Creativity across the lifespan: changes with age and with dementia.

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Creativity across the lifespan: changes with age and with dementia.

Similar Datasets

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