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Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach
Published on: February 14, 2014
Personality traits and cognitive reserve-High openness benefits cognition in the presence of age-related brain
Annabell Coors1, Seonjoo Lee2, Christian Habeck3
1Cognitive Neuroscience Division, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract:
Cognitive reserve explains differential susceptibility of cognitive performance to neuropathology. We investigated whether certain personality traits underlie cognitive reserve and are accordingly associated with better cognition and less cognitive decline in the presence of age-related brain changes. We included healthy adults aged 19-80 years for cross-sectional (N=399) and longitudinal (N=273, mean follow-up time=5 years, SD=0.7 years) analyses. Assessment of the BIG5 personality traits openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism was questionnaire-based. Each cognitive domain (perceptual speed, memory, fluid reasoning, vocabulary) was measured with up to six tasks. Cognitive domain-specific brain status variables were obtained by combining 77 structural brain measures into single scores using elastic net regularization. These brain status variables explained up to 43.1% of the variance in cognitive performance. We found that higher openness was associated with higher fluid reasoning and better vocabulary after controlling for brain status, age, and sex. Further, lower brain status was associated with a greater decline in perceptual speed only in individuals with low openness. We conclude that high openness benefits cognitive reserve.
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