Cognitive Performance is Best in Mornings For Older People, Study Finds

Older people have better cognitive performance and attention span in the mornings, a new study finds.

Common belief has it that the brain is sharper and more focused in the mornings. A new study confirmed this belief with their new findings. According to the study authors, older people have better cognitive performance and attention span in the mornings.

"Time of day really does matter when testing older adults. This age group is more focused and better able to ignore distraction in the morning than in the afternoon," said lead author John Anderson, in a press statement. "Their improved cognitive performance in the morning correlated with greater activation of the brain's attentional control regions -- the rostral prefrontal and superior parietal cortex -- similar to that of younger adults."

The study was conducted on 16 younger adults (aged 19 - 30) and 16 older adults (aged 60 - 82). They were asked to perform a series of memory tests in the afternoon (from 1 pm to 5 pm). These tests included studying and recalling a series of picture and word combinations flashed on a computer screen. From time to time, relevant and irrelevant words flashed on the screen to act as a distraction. While the participants were doing the tests, researchers scanned their brains with fMRI, allowing them to detect with great precision which areas of the brain were activated.

Researchers found that the older people were 10 percent more likely to focus on the distractions on the screen than the younger participants. Researchers also found that older adults showed substantially less engagement of the attentional control areas of the brain compared to younger adults.

In another experiment, 18 older adults were asked to perform the same tests in the morning hours (8:30 a.m. -- 10:30 a.m.) Researchers were surprised to find that they performed significantly better than the older participants in the previous experiment. They paid attention to fewer distracting items, closing the age difference gap in performance with younger adults. The study authors also noted that the older adults tested in the morning activated the same brain areas young adults did to successfully ignore the distracting information.

"Our research is consistent with previous science reports showing that at a time of day that matches circadian arousal patterns, older adults are able to resist distraction," said Dr. Lynn Hasher, senior author on the paper and a leading authority in attention and inhibitory functioning in younger and older adults.

"Since older adults tend to be morning-type people, ignoring time of day when testing them on some tasks may create an inaccurate picture of age differences in brain function," said Dr. Hasher, senior scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute and Professor of Psychology at University of Toronto.

The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Findings were published online in the journal Psychology and Aging.

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