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Background: Prioritizing the maintenance of healthy cognitive aging and personalizing preventive interventions to enhance their effectiveness is crucial as the global population ages. Systemic inflammation and depression in older people have been associated with decreased levels of cognition but results have been inconsistent., Aims: To explore the interactive network of inflammation, depression and cognition by sex in older people., Methods: We used novel network analysis to explore the unique associations between inflammatory biomarkers, depression, cognition, and somatic, genetic, and lifestyle risk factors in an older (aged 70-90 years), non-demented, community-dwelling sample from the longitudinal Sydney Memory and Aging Study (N = 916) at baseline and at a two-year follow-up., Results: The networks of biomarkers, depression, cognition, and relevant covariates were significantly different between males and females. A stable negative link between depression and cognition was found in females only; a stable positive association between biomarker interleukin-6 and depression was found in females only; and a stable positive association between biomarker interleukin-8 and alcohol was found in females only. For both males and females, a stable, positive relationship was found between the presence of APOE-ε4 gene and biomarker C-reactive protein; between education and cognition; and between biomarker interleukin-6 and all other biomarkers., Conclusions: These findings suggest different psychophysiological mechanisms underlie the interactive network of biomarkers, depression and cognition in males and females that should be considered when designing personalized preventive interventions to maintain cognitively healthy aging., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

These experiments are the first to investigate the impact of confederate accuracy, age, and age stereotypes in the social contagion of memory paradigm. Across two experiments, younger participants recalled household scenes with an actual (Experiment 1) or virtual (Experiment 2), older or younger confederate who suggested different proportions (0%, 33% or 100%) of false items during collaboration. In Experiment 2, positive and negative age stereotypes were primed by providing bogus background information about our older confederate before collaboration. Across both experiments, if confederates suggested false items participants readily incorporated these into their own memory reports. In Experiment 1, when no age stereotype was primed, participants adopted similar proportions of false items from younger and older confederates. Importantly, in Experiment 2, when our older confederate was presented in terms of negative ageing stereotypes, participants reported less false items and were better able to correctly identify the source of those false items.

Background: The Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) is the most widely used standardised screener for impairments across a range of cognitive domains. However, the degree to which its domains (orientation, registration, attention, recall, language, and visuospatial) capture cognitive functioning measured using standardised neuropsychological tests is unclear. Method: A longitudinal research design with four biannual assessments over a 6‐year period was used with an initial sample of 1037 older adults (aged above 70 years). Participants completed MMSE and neuropsychological tests at each assessment. Network analysis was utilised to investigate unique associations among the MMSE and its domains and neuropsychological test performance at each time point. Results: The total MMSE and two of its domains, language and recall, were associated with neuropsychological memory performance. The MMSE orientation, registration and visuospatial domains did not have any unique associations with neuropsychological performance. No stable internal interconnections between MMSE domains were found over time. The association of total MMSE as well as its recall domain with neuropsychological memory performance remained very similar over the 6‐year period. Conclusions: The present study adds evidence to the validity of the MMSE and supports the clinical usage of the MMSE, whereby the total score is used for screening patients with or without cognitive impairments, with repeated administration to monitor cognitive changes over time, to inform intervention. However, the tool is not able to diagnose the cases for changes in specific cognitive domains and as such, should not replace a complete neuropsychological assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) is a 36-item assessment for theory of mind (ToM) performance. While this measure has been shown to be sensitive to age-related ToM difficulties, there are no established cutoffs or guidelines currently available that are specific to older adults. This article seeks to validate a short-form version of the RMET appropriate for use in such populations.Methods: Cross-sectional data from 295 participants (mean age 86 years) from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, a longitudinal community observational cohort. Participants underwent an assessment battery that included the RMET. Individuals who scored >1SD below the RMET scores of cognitively normal participants were deemed to have below average RMET scores. Various model-building methods were used to generate short-form solutions of the RMET, which were compared with previously validated versions in their predictive power for below average full RMET performance.Results: Individuals with below average RMET performance tended to be older and have poorer global cognition. Of the eight short-form solutions, the 21-item version generated using genetic algorithm exhibited the best classification performance with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) of 0.98 and had 93.2% accuracy in classifying individuals with below average ToM. A shorter 10-item solution derived by ant colony optimization also had acceptable performance.Conclusion: We recommend the 21-item version of the RMET for use in older adult populations for identifying individuals with impaired ToM. Where an even shorter version is needed with a trade-off of slightly reduced performance, the 10-item version is acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined whether increasing the proportion of false information suggested by a confederate would influence the magnitude of socially introduced false memories in the social contagion paradigm Roediger, Meade, & Bergman (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 8:365-371, ). One participant and one confederate collaboratively recalled items from previously studied household scenes. During collaboration, the confederate interjected 0 %, 33 %, 66 %, or 100 % false items. On subsequent individual-recall tests across three experiments, participants were just as likely to incorporate misleading suggestions from a partner who was mostly accurate (33 % incorrect) as they were from a partner who was not at all accurate (100 % incorrect). Even when participants witnessed firsthand that their partner had a very poor memory on a related memory task, they were still as likely to incorporate the confederate's entirely misleading suggestions on subsequent recall and recognition tests (Exp. 2). Only when participants witnessed firsthand that their partner had a very poor memory on a practice test of the experimental task itself were they able to reduce false memory, and this reduction occurred selectively on a subsequent individual recognition test (Exp. 3). These data demonstrate that participants do not always consider their partners' memory ability when working on collaborative memory tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying individuals at risk of developing dementia may be aided by early detection of functional impairments. The aims of the present study were to examine differences in informant-reported and performance-based measures of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and to assess whether a performance-based IADL measure contributes additional unique variance over informant reports in predicting incident dementia over 4 years. Prospective cohort study (Sydney Memory and Ageing Study). Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, Australia. 307 community-dwelling individuals (60.6% female) aged between 76 and 96 years with normal cognition (NC; n = 190) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 117). IADL ability was assessed with the performance-based Sydney Test of Activities of Daily Living in Memory Disorders (STAM) and the Bayer-Activities of Daily Living (B-ADL) informant report, at baseline and 4-year follow-up. Covariates included age, sex, education, Mini-Mental State Examination and Geriatric Depression Scale scores, arthritis, vision impairment, cardiovascular risk, and number of medications. Logistic regressions were conducted to examine the longitudinal association between the 2 types of IADL measures and incident dementia. Logistic regressions showed that performance-based IADL impairment at baseline [odds ratio (OR) = 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77, 0.90; P <.001] and decline in performance-based IADL function (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.73, 0.91; P <.001) were associated with incident dementia over 4 years, with the association provided by the STAM being statistically significant over and above the B-ADL. Performance-based measures of IADL can predict progression to dementia over 4 years beyond that provided by an informant report of IADL. Performance-based IADL measures are promising tools for clinical practice to identify individuals at greater risk of developing dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]