How Leisure Activities Buffer Age-Related Mental Slowing
Active leisure lifestyles help older adults stay mentally quick even when their brains process sensory information more slowly.
Source
Evidence Accumulation Rate Moderates the Relationship between Enriched Environment Exposure and Age-Related Response Speed Declines
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How Leisure Activities Buffer Age-Related Mental Slowing
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What is the Centroparietal Positivity (CPP) and what process does it index in decision-making?
A critical extracranial human EEG signal emerging from these investigations is the centroparietal positivity (CPP). This exhibits the key characteristics of evidence-accumulation signals observed using invasive electrophysiological recordings in animals (; ) and conforms to the dynamics predicted by sequential sampling models in two-alternative choice scenarios (; ).
How many younger and older participants were included in the study's final sample?
The final sample included 31 and 41 older participants ().
What they did
Researchers monitored the brain activity of 31 younger and 41 older participants using electroencephalography while they completed a computer task. Participants watched moving dots on a screen and had to quickly press a button as soon as they noticed the dots moving in a single direction. The older participants also completed a standardized interview to measure their lifetime engagement in intellectual, professional, and leisure activities.
What they found
Older adults were slower to respond to the moving dots than younger adults, showing slower average reaction times. An electroencephalography marker representing how fast the brain accumulates sensory evidence predicted individual reaction times. Crucially, older adults with highly active leisure lifestyles maintained faster reaction times even when their neural evidence accumulation was slower.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Because this study is observational, it cannot prove that leisure activities directly cause changes in brain processing or prevent mental decline. The findings rely heavily on retrospective questionnaires, which depend on participants accurately remembering their activities over several decades. Additionally, the study focused on healthy older adults, meaning the results might not apply to individuals experiencing severe cognitive impairment or neurological diseases.
Key terms
- Centroparietal positivity (CPP)
- An EEG signal recorded over the parietal scalp that tracks the gradual accumulation of sensory evidence toward a decision threshold.
- Cognitive reserve
- The brain's ability to improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done, allowing people to maintain cognitive function despite age-related brain changes.
- Drift-diffusion model (DDM)
- A mathematical framework that conceptualizes decision-making as a process where sensory evidence is accumulated over time until it hits a decision boundary.
- Environmental enrichment
- Exposure to stimulating physical, intellectual, and social activities across the lifespan.
- Response speed
- The time it takes for an individual to perceive a sensory cue, make a decision, and execute a motor response.
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Quiz yourself
What process does the centroparietal positivity (CPP) index in decision-making?
Common questions
Why did only leisure activities, and not education or occupation, predict response speed in older adults?
Leisure activities like using technology, socializing, and attending cultural events are often dynamic and require ongoing mental flexibility in later life, whereas formal education and occupation happen earlier in life and may not reflect current cognitive engagement.
How does the centroparietal positivity (CPP) relate to decision-making?
The CPP is an electrical brain signal that builds up over time when you are making a decision. The steeper the slope of this signal, the faster the brain is accumulating evidence to make a choice.
What does 'moderation' mean in this study?
Moderation means that the relationship between an active leisure life and reaction time changes depending on how well a person's brain accumulates evidence. Specifically, having an enriched lifestyle matters most for people whose brains are slower at processing evidence.
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