title: Inhibition and Switching in Healthy Aging: A Longitudinal Study.
abstract: Discrepant findings of age-related effects between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on executive function (EF) have been described across different studies. The aim of the present study was to examine longitudinal age effects on inhibition and switching, two key subfunctions of EF, calculated from results on the Color Word Interference Test (CWIT).
  
  
  
  One hundred twenty-three healthy aging individuals (average age 61.4 years; 67% women) performed the CWIT up to three times, over a period of more than 6 years. Measures of inhibition, switching, and combined inhibition and switching were analyzed. A longitudinal linear mixed effects models analysis was run including basic CWIT conditions, and measures of processing speed, retest effect, gender, education, and age as predictors.
  
  
  
  After taking all predictors into account, age added significantly to the predictive value of the longitudinal models of (i) inhibition, (ii) switching, and (iii) combined inhibition and switching. The basic CWIT conditions and the processing speed measure added to the predictive value of the models, while retest effect, gender, and education did not.
  
  
  
  The present study on middle-aged to older individuals showed age-related decline in inhibition and switching abilities. This decline was retained even when basic CWIT conditions, processing speed, attrition, gender, and education were controlled. (JINS, 2017, 23, 90-97).
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Biological and Medical Psychology,University of Bergen,Norway.
authors.forename: Steinunn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adólfsdóttir
authors.affiliation: 2Institute for Medical Statistics,Epidemiology and Informatics,University Medical Center of the Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz,Mainz,Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wollschlaeger
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Biological and Medical Psychology,University of Bergen,Norway.
authors.forename: Eike
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wehling
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Biological and Medical Psychology,University of Bergen,Norway.
authors.forename: Astri J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lundervold
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D000073656:Healthy Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Cognitive aging; Cognitive control; Cognitive flexibility; Executive functions; Longitudinal; Stroop