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Keep Up the Pace: Declines in Simple Repetitive Timing Differentiate Healthy Aging from the Earliest Stages of Alzheimer's Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Ashley S. Bangert  and
David A. Balota
Ashley S. Bangert*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
David A. Balota
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Ashley S. Bangert, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, 79902. E-mail: asbangert2@utep.edu
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Abstract

The current study examined whether healthy older adults (OA) and individuals at the earliest stages of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) differ from younger adults (YA) and from each other on a simple, extended continuous tapping task using intervals (500 ms, 1000 ms, and 1500 ms) thought to differentially engage attentional control systems. OA groups sped up their tapping at the slowest target rate compared to the YA; this pattern was magnified in the early stage DAT groups. Performance variability appeared especially sensitive to DAT-related changes, as reliable differences between healthy OA and very mild DAT individuals emerged for multiple tap rates. These differences are proposed to result from breakdowns in attentional control that disrupt error-correction processes and the ability to resolve discrepancies between internally-generated temporal expectancies and the external temporal demands of the repetitive timing task. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1–12)

Keywords

AgingAttentionAlzheimer type dementiaDementiaTime perceptionSensory motor performance
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 18 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 1052 - 1063
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2012

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