Characterization of attentional function in the elderly adults using different behavioral tasks.

Maria Clara Drummond Soares de Moura
Department of Neuroscience and Behavior of Psychology Instit

Luis Eduardo Ribeiro do Valle
Department of Neuroscience and Behavior of Psychology Institute of University of S?o Paulo

Yeda Aparecida de Oliveira Duarte
Department of Medical-Cirurgical Nursing of Nursing School of University of S?o Paulo

Maria Lucia Lebr
Department of Epidemiology of Public Health College of University of S?o Paulo

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     Last modified: March 15, 2007

Abstract
The poor performance of elderly people in a diversity of tasks has been partially attributed to age changes with in one or more basic mental resources necessary for cognitive tasks. One of these resources is attention that can be defined as a neural activity that selectively facilitates sensory, cognitive and motor processing at each moment. The aim of the present study was to characterize more precisely the attentional deficiencies in elderly people.
We assessed covert automatic attention, voluntary attention, selective attention, and divided attention using reaction time tasks. Two groups of 15 individuals, literated, with punctuation of at least 26 in the Mini Mental Exam were tested. Group 1 was constituted by men and women between 25 and 45 years old, and Group 2 had the same proportion of men and women between 60 and 80 years of age. Automatic attention was mobilized by a peripheral visual stimulus, spatially non-informative, and voluntary attention by a symbolic central cue. Selective attention was tested with the presentation of central distracter stimuli and divided attention by the presentation of two simultaneous stimuli.
There were no significant differences between the two groups for automatic attention. Voluntary attention ad selective attention tended to be worse for Group 2. Divided attention have shown to be clearly deficient in Group 1 (p<0,01).
The aging process compromises the most complex aspects of attentional function. This dysfunction would amplify the well known sensory and motor deficiencies of elderly people, contributing to the progressive loss of functional independence that they present.