Terminal dedifferentiation of cognitive abilities.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To test the cognitive dedifferentiation hypothesis that cognitive abilities become increasingly correlated in late life.

Methods

Participants are 174 older persons without dementia at the beginning of a longitudinal clinical-pathologic cohort study. At annual intervals for 6 to 15 years prior to death, they completed a battery of cognitive performance tests from which previously established composite measures of episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed were derived. At death, there was a uniform neuropathologic assessment and levels of diffuse plaques, neuritic plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles were summarized in a composite measure. Change in the 4 cognitive outcomes was analyzed simultaneously in a mixed-effects model that allowed

SUBMITTER: Wilson RS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3320052 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature