Frequency of mentally stimulating activities modifies the relationship between cardiovascular reactivity and executive function in old age (original) (raw)
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Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology, 2012
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in older adults has been associated with varying degrees of cognitive dysfunction. Several mechanisms may explain this association, including impaired cardiovascular reactivity to autonomic nervous system (ANS) signaling. Reduced heart rate recovery following a stress test may be considered an indication of impaired ANS function (i.e., reduced parasympathetic activity). Participants were 47 older adults (53-83 years) who underwent a treadmill stress test and were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery upon entry to phase II cardiac rehabilitation. Reduced parasympathetic activity was associated with impaired cognitive performance on a measure of global cognitive function and on tasks of speeded executive function and confrontation naming. These relationships suggest that changes in autonomic function may be mechanistically related to the impaired cognitive function prevalent in CVD patients.
Short-term heart rate variability during a cognitive challenge in young and older adults
Age and Ageing, 2002
Background: attention-demanding tasks cause changes in the autonomic modulation of cardiac function. Heart rate variability, an index of autonomic modulation of heart rate, decreases with age. Objective: to examine heart rate variability in elderly and young participants at rest and during an attentiondemanding task. Methods: we assessed 16 old participants (ages 72-91) and 16 college-age (ages 20-25) participants for shortterm (5 min) heart rate variability at rest and during a simple-reaction time task. We report heart rate variability as the standard deviation of all interbeat intervals, and as the relative contribution of changes occurring at low-and high-frequencies. Results: there were no group differences in resting heart rate. A 262 mixed model ANOVA suggested a main effect of age on standard deviation of all interbeat intervals (P-0.05) which was significantly lower for the older group than their younger counterparts. There was also a significant effect of the test condition on standard deviation of all interbeat intervals and spectral measures of heart rate variability (P-0.05) in that standard deviation of all interbeat intervals dropped during the simple reaction time as did high-frequencies, while normalized low frequency power increased. Conclusion: cardiac autonomic modulation during provocative stress show similar physiologic responses in young and older adults.
The Association between Heart Rate Variability and Cognitive Impairment in Middle-Aged Men and Women
Neuroepidemiology, 2008
Background: To examine the relationship between reduced heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive function in middleaged adults in the general population. Methods: HRV, in both time and frequency domains, and cognitive functioning were measured twice in 5,375 male and female participants of the UK Whitehall II study (mean ages = 55 and 61 years, respectively). Logistic regression was used to model associations between HRV and cognition [short-term verbal memory, reasoning (Alice Heim 4-I), vocabulary, phonemic and semantic fluency]. Cross-sectional associations were assessed at both waves, and longitudinal associations were measured as changes in cognition over the 5-year follow-up. Results: No consistent associations were found in men or women, either in the cross-sectional, prospective or the longitudinal analyses of declines in cognition. Conclusion: Reduced cardiovascular autonomic function does not contribute to cognitive impairment in this middle-aged population.
Clinical Autonomic Research, 2013
To examine the independent association between heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive performance, in a nationally representative population study of older adults. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of wave 1 data from the Irish longitudinal study on ageing (TILDA) was performed. A subset of 4,763 participants who underwent ECG recording during resting and paced breathing periods were used for the analysis. HRV indices were divided into quintiles for comparison of values and cognitive performance was defined using the Montreal cognitive assessment (MOCA) score. Multivariate linear regression was used to model the association between cognition and different quintiles of each HRV index, after adjustment for covariates. Results The mean age was 61.7 ± 8.3 years and 2,618 (55 %) were female. Lower quintiles of SDNN (P = 0.01-paced), LF (P = 0.001-paced), and LF:HF ratio (P = 0.049-paced) were significantly associated with lower MOCA scores (during both recording periods), independent of confounders. Sub-domains of MOCA responsible for the relationship were predominantly memory recall and language. Interpretation Reduced HRV is significantly associated with lower cognitive performance at a population level in people aged 50 and older. This further strengthens the relationship between autonomic dysfunction and cognitive disorders.
Midlife Cardiovascular Risk Impacts Executive Function
Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 2014
Introduction-Novel error scores and traditional indices of executive function (EF) were related to cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) measured 10-15 years earlier. Methods-From 1991-1995, the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP), a composite score of cardiovascular risk, was ascertained in 1755 Framingham Offspring participants (54% women, mean age= 54 ± 9 years). Participants were administered EF tests: FAS and Animals Fluency tests, Trail Making Test B (TrB), and Digit Span-Backwards (DS-B) in 2005-2009. Linear and logistic regression were used to relate the FSRP and its components to both error responses and traditional scores. Results-Consistent with previous findings, the FSRP and the individual components diabetes and sex were associated with several traditional measures of EF. Of interest were relationships between the FSRP score and TrB Total Errors (p=0.04), DS-B % Total Errors (p=0.02) and DS-B Capacity Score (p=0.03), and prevalent CVD related to making FAS Perseverations in the 75th percentile (p=0.03). By comparison, FSRP and CVD were not related to the traditional DS-B or FAS scores. Additionally, age was associated with higher Animals % Total Errors and % Perseverations among ApoE4+ individuals and with higher TrB Total Errors among ApoE4− individuals.
The relationship between cardiovascular reactions to acute mental challenge in the laboratory and cognitive ability has received scant attention. The present study examined the association between reactivity and future cognitive ability. Heart rate and blood pressure reactions to a mental stress task were measured in 1647 participants comprising three distinct age cohorts. Cognitive ability was assessed using the Alice Heim-4 test of general intelligence and choice reaction time 5 and 12 years later. High heart rate reactivity was related to higher general intelligence scores and faster choice reaction times at both follow-ups. High heart rate reactivity was also associated with a smaller decline in cognitive ability between assessments. These associations were still evident following adjustment for a wide range of potentially confounding variables. The present results are consistent with the notion that high reactivity may not always be a maladaptive response and that low or blunted reactivity may also have negative corollaries.
2012
Although aging is associated with progressive increases in blood pressure level, previous research has been inconsistent as to whether older adults show greater or lesser cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to emotion than do younger adults. There is reason to believe that these inconsistencies could be clarified by examining age-related differences in hemodynamic profile revealed by measuring the pattern of cardiac output and total peripheral resistance associated with changes in blood pressure reactivity. Accordingly, the present study examined the performance, CVR, and hemodynamic profile of younger and older adults during encoding and recognition of word pairs involving four valence types: positive, negative, mixed (positive/negative), and neutral word pairs. Results revealed higher baseline blood pressure, increased CVR characterized by a vascular hemodynamic profile, and more rapid recovery (especially during encoding) for older than for younger participants. Results are discussed in light of research and theory on the relationship between aging and cardiovascular health.
Increased heart rate variability and executive performance after aerobic training in the elderly
This study examined the effects of two short physical training programs on various parameters of heart rate variability (HRV) and on executive performance in older people. Twenty-four sedentary men and women aged 65-78 years were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise program or a stretching program three times a week for 12 weeks. Resting HRV was measured in time and frequency domains in each participant before and after the 12-week programs. Executive performance was measured with the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST). Significant group-session interactions emerged for the standard deviation of normal beat-to-beat (R-R) intervals, the rootmean-square of successive R-R, and high frequency power. Only the aerobic training group increased vagalmediated HRV parameters. Moreover, only the participants in the aerobic training group improved their performance on the WCST. These results highlight the role of aerobic exercise as an important cardiac and brain protective factor, and suggest a direct link between exercise, HRV, and cognition in the aged population.