Synchrony Effects on Aging
Circadian rhythms, or fluctuations that occur on a 24-hour basis influence physiological functioning, expression of symptoms, severity of disease. Recent work suggests that circadian rhythms also impacts cognitive performance; such that participants tested at their peak circadian arousal perform better on numerous cognitive tasks than participants tested at off-peak times of day. In this study, we investigated individual differences in cognitive performance as a function of circadian rhythms. Morning-type older adults were tested at either peak (morning) or off-peak (evening) times on a task of selective attention and inhibitory control. The accuracy and reaction time data that was obtained from behavioral testing was then used in a regression-based analysis to investigate whether behavioral performance at peak time is better than performance at off-peak times. The prediction to find relatively higher performance in the morning rather than the evening time of the day was not shown in the results.
School:
University of Texas at El Paso
Department:
Psychology
Research Advisor:
Arthur Kramer
Department of Research Advisor:
Psychology
Year of Publication:
2007