Der Einfluss von akutem Stress auf die prospektive Gedächtnisleistung im Alter
Final Report Abstract
The present project aimed at systematically exploring the effects of stress on age-related PM performance. Several novel findings emerged. Perhaps the most remarkable finding is that stress effects on PM performance only emerged in young adults and only for event-based PM; in contrast older adults, while showing are-related decline in overall PM functioning, were spared in event-based and time-based PM. A pattern that was corroborated by other studies conducted in the context of this project on mood effects. Importantly, those effects were observed despite rigorously following the standard TSST protocols and despite clear evidence of stress responses in both age groups, the latter being an interesting data pattern for itself as TSST-related stress effects in older adults have rarely been studied. Conceptually, the results from the present research program suggest that PM seems to be a cognitive ability that is relatively spared from acute stress effects, especially in older adults. Further, the different stress effects on event- and time-based PM support the idea that these two task types measure different aspects of PM and underline the importance of examining both. Methodologically, our findings show that the older adults in the present study were not stressed by the lab situation or the cognitive task demands per se, as those in the control condition did not differ from their younger counterparts in their cortisol response or their subjective mood ratings. This results is important given that it has been argued that the laboratory environment and the anticipation of a testing might already increase cortisol levels in older adults causing difficulties to conduct stress studies in different age groups and interpret findings of lab-based cognitive aging research. Besides the conceptual and methodological implications described above, the project has generated several concepts for possible follow-up studies currently discussed for subsequent project proposals between the project leaders; these ideas include the precise emotion regulation mechanisms that could so far only be inferred from the present data as well as studying the transfer of current lab-based results to possible similar patterns in everyday life using experience sampling methodology or targeting clinical populations such as late life depression or stress in the aging workforce. In terms of long-term structural outcomes, as indicated above, the current project has allowed the applicants to establish a research group on emotion-cognition interactions using behavioral and neuroscience methodologies that has been associated to several national and international research programs and their respective institutions. Besides being integrated into the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA), the group has become a part of the Geneva Neuroscience Center (CIN) and its associated Master program on Neuroscience. Moreover, since 2014 it is part of the Swiss National Competence Center for Research LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES); a research structure similar to an SFB that studies stress effects on vulnerable populations across the lifespan and where the applicant (Prof. Kliegel) leads one of the currently nine subprojects on Old Age. Finally, the neuroscience approach applied in the present project was instrumental for the Geneva group becoming part of the establishment of a DFG funded network on Developmental Neuroscience in which the questions of the current project are currently further elaborated.
Publications
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(2012). Age benefits in everyday prospective memory: The influence of personal task importance, use of reminders and everyday stress. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 19, 84-101
Ihle, A., Schnitzspahn, K., Rendell, P.G., Luong, C., & Kliegel, M.
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(2014). Adult age differences in prospective memory in the laboratory: Are they related to higher stress levels in the elderly? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 1021
Ihle, A., Kliegel, M., Hering, A., Ballhausen, N., Lagner, P., Benusch, J., Cichon, A., Zergiebel, A., Oris, M., & Schnitzspahn, K. M.
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(2014). Changes in attentional control drive mood effects on time-based prospective memory in young but not older adults. Psychology and Aging, 29, 264-270
Schnitzspahn, K., Thorley, C., Phillips, L., Voigt, B., Threadgold, E., Hammond, E.R., Mustafa, B., & Kliegel, M.
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(2015). Future thinking improves prospective memory performance and plan enactment in older adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, 192-204
Altgassen, M., Rendell, P.G., Bernhard, A., Henry, J.D., Bailey, P.E., Phillips. L.H. & Kliegel, M.
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(2015). Mood effects on memory and executive control in a real-life situation. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 1107-1116
Lagner, P., Kliegel, M., Phillips, L.H., Ihle, A., Hering, A., Ballhausen, N. & Schnitzspahn, K.M.
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(2016). Age differences in prospective memory for everyday life intentions: A diary approach. Memory, 24, 444-454
Schnitzspahn, K.M., Scholz, U., Ballhausen, N., Hering, A., Ihle, A., Lagner, P., & Kliegel, M.
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(2016). Hair cortisol and cognitive performance in working age adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 67, 100-103
McLennan, S.N., Ihle, A., Steudte-Schmiedgen, S., Kirschbaum, C., & Kliegel, M.
