Right lateralized brain reserve offsets age-related deficits in ignoring distraction

Nir Shalev, Méadhbh B Brosnan, Magda Chechlacz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Age-related deterioration of attention decreases the ability to stay focused on the task at hand due to less efficient selection of relevant information and increased distractibility in the face of irrelevant, but salient stimuli. While older (compared with younger) adults may have difficulty suppressing salient distractors, the extent of these challenges differs vastly across individuals. Cognitive reserve measured by proxies of cognitively enriching life experiences, such as education, occupation, and leisure activities, is thought to mitigate the effects of the aging process and account for variability in trajectories of cognitive decline. Based on combined behavioral and neuroimaging (voxel-based morphometry) analyses of demographic, cognitive, and neural markers of aging and cognitive reserve proxy measures, we examine here predictors of variability in the age-related changes in attention function, indexed by ability to suppress salient distraction. Our findings indicate that in healthy (neurotypical), aging gray matter volume within several right lateralized fronto-parietal brain regions varies according to both levels of cognitive reserve (education) and the capacity to effectively select visual stimuli amid salient distraction. Thus, we provide here novel experimental evidence supporting Robertson's theory of a right lateralized neural basis for cognitive reserve.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbertgaa049
JournalCerebral Cortex Communications
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press.

Keywords

  • aging
  • cognitive reserve
  • education
  • saliency
  • visual attention

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