This study aimed to measure the capacity of older participants to improve their tracking speed thresholds (NeuroTracker), to investigate if age related cognitive decline can be reversed with a training intervention known to be directly relevant to the effects of healthy aging.

What Was Studied

20 healthy younger adults (mean age 24 years old) and 20 healthy older adults (mean age 67 years old) performed 15 NeuroTracker training sessions distributed over 5 weeks.

What Was Found

Both groups obtained benefit from training with a similar rate of progression. Though the older group started off at a significantly lower level than the younger group, they obtained speed thresholds that were similar to those of untrained younger adults by the end of the training program. Furthermore, towards the end of the training program the rate of learning appeared to have slowed for the younger group, yet the older group still showed a strong learning curve, suggesting greater improvements with continued training.

Takeaways

In conclusion, although healthy older people show a significant age-related deficit in the NeuroTracker task, they respond strongly to training effects and demonstrate an ability to fully reverse age-related functional decline with a short intervention of NeuroTracker training.

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Reference: Isabelle Legault et al. ‘Healthy older observers show equivalent perceptual-cognitive training benefits to young adults for multiple object tracking’ Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 4, 2013.

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