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Purpose of the study: Everyday memory of older persons does not improve with intensive memory training programs. This study proposes a change in these programs based on a time-extended and massive intervention format. Design and Methods: The sample of 1007 healthy older persons (mean age 71.85; SD = 5.12) was randomized into 2 groups. The experimental group followed an extended 6 years of training (192 sessions over 192 weeks) whereas the control group received an intensive training (3 sessions per week for a total of 32 sessions in 11 weeks). The program included cognitive and emotional content whose effects were assessed with the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT) and with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Both groups were evaluated initially, after 32 sessions, and again after 6 years. Results: The relative improvements measured with Blom's derivative showed that everyday memory and mental status of the experimental group were significantly better both in the short (Δ% 8.31 in RBMT and Δ% 1.51 in MMSE) and in the long term (Δ% 12.54 in RBMT and Δ% 2.56 in MMSE). For everyday memory and mental level, the overall gain estimate representing the mean difference in pre-post change between time-extended and intensive groups was 0.27 (95% CI: 0.13-0.40) and 0.54 (95% CI: 0.40-0.67), respectively. Time-extended programs have significantly improved everyday memory in contrast with the usual intensive programs whose effects decay with time. There are also significant increases in mental level scores while daily life functionality is preserved in all subjects who completed the training. Implications: These results suggest that it is possible to preserve everyday memory in the long term with continuous training and practice. Massive and time-extended formats may contribute in the future to a paradigm shift in memory programs for healthy older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding speech in the presence of background sound can be challenging for older adults. Speech comprehension in noise appears to depend on working memory and executive-control processes (e.g., Heald and Nusbaum, 2014), and their augmentation through training may have rehabilitative potential for age-related hearing loss. We examined the efficacy of adaptive working-memory training (Cogmed; Klingberg et al., 2002) in 24 older adults, assessing generalization to other working-memory tasks (near-transfer) and to other cognitive domains (far-transfer) using a cognitive test battery, including the Reading Span test, sensitive to working memory (e.g., Daneman and Carpenter, 1980). We also assessed far transfer to speech-in-noise performance, including a closed-set sentence task (Kidd et al., 2008). To examine the effect of cognitive training on benefit obtained from semantic context, we also assessed transfer to open-set sentences; half were semantically coherent (high-context) and half were semantically anomalous (low-context). Subjects completed 25 sessions (0.5-1 h each; 5 sessions/week) of both adaptive working memory training and placebo training over 10 weeks in a crossover design. Subjects' scores on the adaptive working-memory training tasks improved as a result of training. However, training did not transfer to other working memory tasks, nor to tasks recruiting other cognitive domains. We did not observe any training-related improvement in speech-in-noise performance. Measures of working memory correlated with the intelligibility of low-context, but not high-context, sentences, suggesting that sentence context may reduce the load on working memory. The Reading Span test significantly correlated only with a test of visual episodic memory, suggesting that the Reading Span test is not a pure-test of working memory, as is commonly assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy aging is associated with a variety of functional and structural brain alterations. These age-related brain alterations have been assumed to negatively impact cognitive and motor performance. Especially important for the execution of everyday activities in older adults (OA) is the ability to perform movements that depend on both hands working together. However, bimanual coordination is typically deteriorated with increasing age. Hence, a deeper understanding of such age-related brain-behavior alterations might offer the opportunity to design future interventional studies in order to delay or even prevent the decline in cognitive and/or motor performance over the lifespan. Here, we examined to what extent the capability to acquire and maintain a novel bimanual motor skill is still preserved in healthy OA as compared to their younger peers (YA). For this purpose, we investigated performance of OA (n = 26) and YA (n = 26) in a bimanual serial reaction time task (B-SRTT), on two experimental sessions, separated by 1 week. We found that even though OA were generally slower in global response times, they showed preserved learning capabilities in the B-SRTT. However, sequence specific learning was more pronounced in YA as compared to OA. Furthermore, we found that switching between hands during B-SRTT learning trials resulted in increased response times (hand switch costs), a phenomenon that was more pronounced in OA. These hand switch costs were reduced in both groups over the time course of learning. More interestingly, there were no group differences in hand switch costs on the second training session. These results provide novel evidence that bimanual motor skill learning is capable of reducing age-related deficits in hand switch costs, a finding that might have important implications to prevent the age-related decline in sensorimotor function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the 'First Regional Healthy Aging and Dementia Research Symposium' was to discuss the latest research in healthy aging and dementia research, public health trends related to neurodegenerative diseases of aging, and community-based programs and research studying health, nutrition, and cognition. This symposium was organized by the Garrison Institute on Aging (GIA) of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), and was held in Lubbock, Texas, October 24-25, 2018. The Symposium joined experts from educational and research institutions across the United States. The two-day Symposium included all GIA staff and researchers. Students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members involved in dementia research presented at the Symposium. Healthcare professionals, from geriatricians to social workers working with patients with neurodegenerative diseases, also presented. In addition, experts traveled from across the United States to participate. This event was comprised of multiple sessions, each with several oral presentations, followed by questions and answers, and discussion.