Age and pain differences in non-verbal fluency performance: Associations with cortical thickness and subcortical volumes.

Age and pain differences in non-verbal fluency performance: Associations with cortical thickness and subcortical volumes. Exp Gerontol. 2019 Aug 21;:110708 Authors: Lysne P, Cohen R, Hoyos L, Fillingim RB, Riley JL, Cruz-Almeida Y Abstract Musculoskeletal pain is a cause of disability in older individuals and is commonly associated with executive function deficits. In particular, verbal fluency deficits have been previously reported in older individuals with and without musculoskeletal pain, however, no studies have examined non-verbal fluency. The present study investigated non-verbal fluency performance in younger and older individuals and associations with clinical and experimental pain. The NEPAL study included older (n = 63) and younger (n = 28) individuals who completed demographic, and clinical pain assessments followed by a multi-modal QST battery. A subset of participants (older n = 39/63, younger n = 11/28) underwent a structural 3T MRI to extract cortical thickness and subcortical gray matter volumes. The Ruff Figural Fluency Test was administered to assess fluid/divergent thinking, ability to shift cognitive set, and planning strategies. Total Unique Designs drawn and Error Ratio assessed participants' ability to minimize repetition while maximizing unique productions. Adjusting for race and education, older participants with chronic pain had significantly lower Total Unique Designs (67.1 ± 20.3) comp...
Source: Experimental Gerontology - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Tags: Exp Gerontol Source Type: research