Aging and Attenuated Processing Robustness
Evidence f rom Cognitive and Sensorimotor FunctioningLi S.-C. · Huxhold O. · Schmiedek F.
Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
Background: Within-person, across-time variations in processes and performance are intrinsic to all aspects of human functioning. Objective: This article starts with a brief taxonomy of intraindividual dynamics. There are adaptive as well as non-adaptive types of intraindividual variations that unfold with different degrees of reversibility on different time scales and involve either single, or systems of, functions. Methods: Empirical findings regarding aging and a specific type of intraindividual variation, namely attenuated processing robustness, are then presented with respect to cognitive and sensorimotor functioning. Results: In both domains of functioning, old adults exhibit less robust functioning with a greater amount of week-to-week, day-to-day, or trial-by-trial fluctuations in their cognitive, walking, and postural control performances. Conclusion: Currently, the causes for the attenuation of processing robustness in cognitive and sensorimotor functioning are not well understood. Neurocomputational models are useful tools for exploring the tripartite relationships between the aging of neural information-processing fidelity, and cognitive, and sensorimotor processes.
Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
DE–14195 Berlin (Germany)
Tel. +49 30 82406 305, Fax +49 30 82499 39, E-Mail Shuchen@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Number of Print Pages : 7
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 0, Number of References : 23
Gerontology (International Journal of Experimental, Clinical and Behavioural Gerontoloy)
Founded 1957 by F. Verzàr as ‘Gerontologia’, merged 1975 with ‘Gerontologia Clinica’, founded 1959 by E. Woodford-Williams and A.N. Exton-Smith
Organ of the International Association of Gerontology (IAG)
Vol. 50, No. 1, Year 2004 (Cover Date: January-February 2004)
Journal Editor: W. Meier-Ruge, Basel
ISSN: 0304–324X (print), 1423–0003 (Online)
For additional information: http://www.karger.com/journals/ger