Dual-task costs in aging are predicted by formal education

Vallesi, Antonino · 2016 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1007/s40520-015-0385-5

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Summary

This study investigates the factors that explain individual variability in dual-task performance among healthy older adults. While aging is generally associated with increased difficulty in managing concurrent tasks, significant inter-individual differences exist even within the healthy elderly population. The research specifically examines whether cognitive reserve, operationalized through years of formal education, predicts better dual-task management compared to other factors such as chronological age, general cognitive abilities, and secondary task efficiency. The study aims to extend previous findings on mixed motor-cognitive dual tasks to purely cognitive contexts. The experiment involved 64 older adults (mean age 68.9 years) and 31 younger controls (mean age 23 years). Participants performed a computerized dual-task paradigm consisting of a primary simple response time task (pressing a spacebar upon seeing a target arrow) and a secondary mental subtraction task (progressively subtracting numbers from a starting minuend). Dual-task costs were calculated by comparing performance in dual-task conditions against single-task conditions. Older adults also completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to measure general cognitive abilities and the Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire (CRIq). A multiple regression analysis was conducted on the older adult sample to determine which variables—age, MoCA scores, secondary task efficiency, and years of education—best predicted dual-task interference. Results confirmed that older adults exhibited significantly higher dual-task costs than younger controls, with response times increasing by 242 ms for older adults compared to 171 ms for younger adults. Older adults also performed the secondary subtraction task with lower accuracy. Within the older group, the multiple regression analysis revealed that years of formal education was the only significant predictor of dual-task costs, explaining approximately 25% of the variance. Chronological age, general cognitive abilities (MoCA), and secondary task efficiency did not significantly predict dual-task interference when education was controlled for. This finding remained robust even after removing potential outliers from the dataset. The study concludes that formal education serves as a critical component of cognitive reserve, facilitating better executive function and dual-task management in healthy aging. These findings extend prior literature by demonstrating that education predicts purely cognitive dual-task performance, independent of motor tasks. The results suggest that early-life educational experiences provide a lasting benefit that helps older adults tolerate age-related cognitive declines. However, since education explains only a portion of the variance, the authors note that other factors, such as specific occupational skills or leisure activities, likely contribute to the remaining variability in dual-task performance.

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Topics

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• dual task multitasking
• dual task performance