Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
Published on: December 18, 2016
Context processing and context maintenance in healthy aging and early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type
Todd S Braver1, Ajay B Satpute, Beth K Rush
1Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. tbraver@artsci.wustl.edu
Abstract:
Declines in the ability to process context information may represent a fundamental mechanism of age-related cognitive changes. Two components of context processing--activation/updating and maintenance--were examined in a sample of healthy younger and older adults, along with individuals suffering from early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). All older adult groups showed context activation/updating impairments, whereas context maintenance was only impaired in the oldest adults (age>75 years) and was further exacerbated in DAT individuals. The results suggest that context processing may be composed of functionally dissociable components and point to the utility of this construct in understanding the timecourse of cognitive decline in healthy and pathological aging.
Related Concept Videos
Dementia l: Introduction
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Alzheimer's Disease: Overview
The clinical diagnosis of AD hinges on the presence of memory and other cognitive impairments. Biomarkers, such as changes in Aβ and tau...
Alzheimer Disease ll: Pathophysiology
Dementia
The progression of dementia is generally gradual.

