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Cognitive Function in Normal Aging and Early Dementia

  • Conference paper
Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Part of the book series: Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences ((NEUROLOGICAL,volume 2))

Abstract

Both normal aging and senile dementia are associated with a broad array of changes in cognitive function. The objective of this review is to identify and illustrate the most salient features of these changing psychological profiles. Table 1 is a summary of the effects of normal aging and mild to moderate senile dementia upon a variety of psychometric tests, with the test measures assigned to different theoretical categories of cognitive function. The utility of this approach is limited by a number of factors. First, the diffuse nature of the cognitive decline associated with aging and dementia makes it difficult to identify discrete cognitive abilities which are selectively impaired or intact. This problem is greatly magnified in the more advanced stages of senile dementia, where the global nature of the cognitive deterioration makes discrimination between affected and unaffected cognitive processes almost impossible. Virtually any cognitive test will elicit a significant performance decrement in severely demented as opposed to mildly demented subjects. The former subject group is not, therefore, included in Table 1 and this review will be restricted to studies of patients in only the early stages of senile dementia. A second problem with this approach is the relative lack of specificity of the psychometric tests. Since individual test results are normally dependent upon multiple cognitive abilities, it is difficult to attribute a lowered test score solely to a deficit in a particular cognitive function. Finally, the validity of the separate categories of cognitive function as theoretical psychological constructs has also not been adequately established.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    C. Flicker, S. H. Ferris & B. Reisberg

  2. Center for Study of Mental Health of the Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20857, USA

    T. Crook

  3. Department of CNS Research, Medical Research Division of American Cyanamid Company, Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, NY, 10965, USA

    R. T. Bartus

Authors
  1. C. Flicker
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  2. S. H. Ferris
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  3. T. Crook
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  4. R. T. Bartus
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  5. B. Reisberg
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neurobiology Department, Troponwerke GmbH & Co. KG, Neurather Ring 1, D-5000, Köln 80, Germany

    Jörg Traber

  2. Division of Molecular Neurobiology Rudolf Magnus Institute for Pharmacology and Institute of Molecular Biology, State University of Utrecht, Padualaan 8, NL-3508 TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Willem Hendrik Gispen

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© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Flicker, C., Ferris, S.H., Crook, T., Bartus, R.T., Reisberg, B. (1985). Cognitive Function in Normal Aging and Early Dementia. In: Traber, J., Gispen, W.H. (eds) Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70644-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70644-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-70646-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-70644-8

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