title: Alerting, orienting, and executive attention in older adults.
abstract: The Attention Network Test (ANT) assesses alerting, orienting, and executive attention. The current study was designed to achieve three main objectives. First, we determined the reliability, effects, and interactions of attention networks in a relatively large cohort of non-demented older adults (n = 184). Second, in the context of this aged cohort, we examined the effect of chronological age on attention networks. Third, the effect of blood pressure on ANT performance was evaluated. Results revealed high-reliability for the ANT as a whole, and for specific cue and flanker types. We found significant main effects for the three attention networks as well as diminished alerting but enhanced orienting effects during conflict resolution trials. Furthermore, increased chronological age and low blood pressure were both associated with significantly worse performance on the executive attention network. These findings are consistent with executive function decline in older adults and the plausible effect of reduced blood flow to the frontal lobes on individual differences in attention demanding tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Jeannette R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mahoney
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verghese
authors.forename: Yelena
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goldin
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lipton
authors.forename: Roee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Holtzer
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*