Math abilities in Aging: relationship with Cognitive Reserve
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1
University of Padova, Department of neuroscience, Italy
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2
University of Padua, Department of General Psychology, Italy
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3
Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo IRCCS, Italy
Introduction: This study was meant to verify to what extent math abilities in aging are predicted by Cognitive Reserve, as compared to demographic variables (age, gender, education) and global cognitive functioning. Cognitive Reserve (Stern, 2011) refers to the mind's resistance to damage of the brain. It provides an explanation for differences among individuals in susceptibility to age- or pathology-related brain changes, whereby some people can tolerate more of these changes than others and keep functioning for a longer. It is thought to result from the ability to recruit brain networks and/or from compensation by alternative cognitive strategies.
The question may arise of whether distinct cognitive functions are homogeneously sensitive to cognitive reserve. Mathematical abilities, which have been shown to be organized in a highly modular way, are a particular field within this broader investigation.
Methods: Participants were administered the CRIq questionnaire (Nucci et al., 2012), an instrument that evaluates the cognitive reserve of an individual by collecting information about a person's entire adult life. Besides a total score, separate sub-scores can be obtained for three sections: Education, Working activity and Leisure time. The assessment of math abilities was made with NADL (Semenza et al., 2014). The general cognitive status was evaluated with MMSE. Participants in this study were 60 healthy elderly people (26 males and 34 females), aged 65-98 (mean: 73.25, s.d.: 7.14), with an average education of 10.96 years (s.d.: 4.56) and an average MMSE score of 28.02 (s.d.: 1.71). Criteria for inclusion were age >65, an MMSE score >25, the absence of a neurological condition or other impairing disease.
Results: Multiple regressions (Table 1) revealed that gender, CRIq total score, CRIq education and CRIq working activity do not have a direct relation with math abilities. Age showed a detrimental effect and predicted the ability to read and write numbers (p <.001) as well as mathematical abilities in ecological situations (p =.01). Education predicted the participants’ perception of their ability to deal with numbers in everyday life (p =.01) and the ability to deal with arithmetical rules and principles (p =.004). MMSE predicted ability in mental calculation (p =.003), written operations (p =.004) and arithmetical rules and principles (p = 0.004). CRIq leisure predicted mathematical abilities in ecological situations (p =.02).
Discussion: The main result is that amount of Cognitive reserve does not predict the preservation of mathematical abilities in healthy aging. Interestingly, only CRIq leisure predicts mathematical abilities used in ecological situations (e.g., shopping): it seems that keeping oneself active, independently of previous occupation and education, helps keep the ability to cope with mathematical demands in everyday life. Aging, albeit healthy, progressively limits verbal aspects of mathematical abilities and their use in everyday life, but does not necessarily impair calculation.
References
Nucci, M., Mapelli, D., & Mondini, S. (2012). The Cognitive Reserve
Questionnaire (CRIq): a new instrument for measuring the cognitive reserve.
Aging clinical and experimental research, 24, 218-26.
Semenza, C., Meneghello, F., Arcara, G., Burgio, F., Gnoato, F., Facchini, S., Benavides-Varela, S., Clementi, M., Butterworth, B. (2014). A new clinical tool for assessing numerical abilities in neurological diseases: Numerical Activities of Daily Living. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 6,112, 1-8.
Stern Y (2012) Cognitive reserve in ageing and in Alzheimer's disease. Lancet Neurology, 11(11), 1006-1012.
Keywords:
Cognitive Reserve,
brain reserve,
Ageing,
mathmatical abilities,
modularity
Conference:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Symposium
Topic:
Academy of Aphasia
Citation:
Semenza
C,
Mondini
S,
Bisso
A,
Meneghello
F and
Arcara
G
(2016). Math abilities in Aging: relationship with Cognitive Reserve.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00046
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Received:
24 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
15 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Carlo Semenza, University of Padova, Department of neuroscience, Padova, Italy, carlo.semenza@unipd.it