Curiosity and mortality in aging adults: a 5-year follow-up of the Western Collaborative Group Study

Age Differences in State Curiosity: Examining the Role of Personal Relevance

OBJECTIVES

Curiosity, or the desire for novel information and/or experience, is associated with improved well-being and more informed decisions, which has implications on older adults' (OAs') adoption of novel technologies. There have been suggestions that curiosity tends to decline with age. However, it was rarely studied under specific contexts, and there were relatively limited attempts to enhance OAs' curiosity. Under the theoretical framework of selective engagement theory, we examined age differences of curiosity in the context of learning a novel technology and investigated the moderating role of personal relevance.

METHOD

This study utilized a pretest-posttest experimental design with a total of 50 younger adults (YAs) and 50 OAs from Hong Kong to measure their trait curiosity, perceived personal relevance, and state curiosity toward robots after interacting with a robot.

RESULTS

OAs showed significantly lower trait curiosity than YAs, but OAs showed a higher level of state curiosity toward a robot than YAs when they perceived an increase in personal relevance after interacting with the robot.

CONCLUSION

Findings replicated previous findings that trait curiosity declined with age, but they also illustrated the distinctions between trait and state curiosity in the context of aging and highlighted the potential role of personal relevance in enhancing curiosity of OAs.

Association between age and intellectual curiosity: the mediating roles of future time perspective and importance of curiosity

This study aimed to examine the underlying mechanism behind the association of age and intellectual curiosity. Previous studies generally showed a negative association between age and intellectual curiosity. To shed light on this association, we hypothesize that older adults become more selective in where they invest their curiosity compared with younger adults. The present study (N = 857) first examined the association between age and intellectual curiosity and then the mediation roles of future time perspective and perceived importance of curiosity in the association. The moderation effect of culture was also included to test the generalizability of this model across European Americans, Chinese Americans, and Hong Kong Chinese. The findings suggested that there was a significant negative association between age and intellectual curiosity, even after controlling for sex, culture, and education level. The moderated serial multiple mediation model demonstrated that the indirect effect of age on curiosity through future time perspective and importance of curiosity was significant across all three cultural groups while age did not have a direct effect on intellectual curiosity. This finding suggested that, as future time becomes more limited with age, curiosity is less valued; hence, curiosity is negatively associated with the advance of age. This study illustrates the importance of future time and perceived importance of curiosity in explaining age-related differences in curiosity and sheds light on the situations in which older adults may be as intellectually curious as younger adults.

Measuring character strengths as possible protective factors against suicidal ideation in older Chinese adults: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Suicide is a global issue among the elderly. The number of older people committing suicide is proliferating, and the elderly suicide rate is the highest among all age groups in China. A better understanding of the possible protective factors against suicidal ideation is necessary to facilitate prevention and intervention efforts. The objectives of the present study are threefold. First, this study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the three-dimensional inventory of character strengths (TICS) with a sample of older adults. Second, this study intends to investigate correlations among suicide ideation, wellbeing, and character strengths. Third, the study seeks to explore the possible protective roles of the three character strengths and wellbeing in explaining suicidal ideation among older adults.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study comprising 308 older adults aged at least 50 years old from nursing homes was conducted. Four questionnaires, namely, the TICS, the Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale-10 items, the Brief Inventory of Thriving, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale, were used. Exploratory structural equation modeling, intraclass correlation coefficients, partial correlations, and sets of hierarchical regressions were adopted to estimate and report the results.

RESULTS

TICS could be used to assess the character strengths (i.e., caring, inquisitiveness, and self-control) among older adults with an acceptable goodness-of-fit (chi square = 157.30, df = 63, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07, 90% CI = [0.06, 0.08]). Wellbeing and character strengths exhibited a negative association with suicidal ideation among older adults. Moreover, character strengths showed an independently cross-sectional relationship with suicidal ideation, explaining 65.1% of the variance of suicidal ideation after controlling for the wellbeing and demographics.

CONCLUSION

This study indicated that character strengths were associated with low levels of suicidal ideation. Therefore, the protective factors against suicidal ideation among older adults should be given additional attention.

Markers of Novelty Processing in Older Adults Are Stable and Reliable

Exploratory behavior and responsiveness to novelty play an important role in maintaining cognitive function in older adults. Inferences about age- or disease-related differences in neural and behavioral responses to novelty are most often based on results from single experimental testing sessions. There has been very limited research on whether such findings represent stable characteristics of populations studied, which is essential if investigators are to determine the result of interventions aimed at promoting exploratory behaviors or draw appropriate conclusions about differences in the processing of novelty across diverse clinical groups. The goal of the current study was to investigate the short-term test-retest reliability of event-related potential (ERP) and behavioral responses to novel stimuli in cognitively normal older adults. ERPs and viewing durations were recorded in 70 healthy older adults participating in a subject-controlled visual novelty oddball task during two sessions occurring 7 weeks apart. Mean midline P3 amplitude and latency, mean midline amplitude during successive 50 ms intervals, temporospatial factors derived from principal component analysis (PCA), and viewing duration in response to novel stimuli were measured during each session. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no reliable differences in the value of any measurements between Time 1 and 2. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between Time 1 and 2 were excellent for mean P3 amplitude (ICC = 0.86), the two temporospatial factors consistent with the P3 components (ICC of 0.88 and 0.76) and viewing duration of novel stimuli (ICC = 0.81). Reliability was only fair for P3 peak latency (ICC = 0.56). Successive 50 ms mean amplitude measures from 100 to 1,000 ms yielded fair to excellent reliabilities, and all but one of the 12 temporospatial factors identified demonstrated ICCs in the good to excellent range. We conclude that older adults demonstrate substantial stability in ERP and behavioral responses to novel visual stimuli over a 7-week period. These results suggest that older adults may have a characteristic way of processing novelty that appears resistant to transient changes in their environment or internal states, which can be indexed during a single testing session. The establishment of reliable measures of novelty processing will allow investigators to determine whether proposed interventions have an impact on this important aspect of behavior.

Role of personality in cardiovascular diseases: An issue that needs to be focused too!

This review provides a broad overview of the relationship of personality with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). There has been a sustained interest over the last half a century on the issue of relationship between personality traits and CVDs. Type A behavior was the initial focus of inquiry as it was observed that individuals who were competitive, hostile, and excessively driven were overrepresented among patients seeking treatment for CVDs and also were prone to develop coronary artery disease/syndrome. However, the research gradually expanded to assess the relationship of cardiac morbidity with various other personality facets. Furthermore, studies found out that negative effects (including anger and hostility) were also associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Subsequently, a new personality entity named as the type D ‘distressed’ personality, which combined negative affectivity and social inhibition. type D personality then became the area of research and was demonstrated to be related with poorer cardiac outcomes. Interestingly, the results of various research studies are not equivocal, and hence, there are several critiques related to the current understanding of the link between personality construct and the risk of development as well as the outcome of CVDs. Furthermore, few personality traits such as optimism, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and curiosity have been found to be protective factors against development of CVDs and therefore are called ‘cardioprotective’ personality traits. A detailed discussion on the various aspects of personality in relation to CVDs along with a critical appraisal has been presented in this review.

Personality Change at Mid-Life is Associated with Changes in Self-Rated Health: Evidence from the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort

Personality traits change across the lifespan, and trait change, in addition to trait level, may be related to health. Longitudinal data from the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort were used to investigate associations between changes in traits and self-rated health (SRH). Participants (N = 733, M_age = 44.4) completed measures of the Big Five personality traits and SRH twice approximately 3 years apart. Personality trait changes were associated with SRH change. Additionally, increases on Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness, and decreases on Neuroticism, predicted increases in SRH, even when controlling for gender and education. Relating correlated trait change at mid-life, when traits reach peak stability, to a consequential health outcome such as SRH change, demonstrates the value of treating both traits and health indicators as dynamic variables.

Openness to experience and mortality in men: analysis of trait and facets

OBJECTIVES

We examined whether specific facets are more robust predictors of mortality risk than overall trait openness in a sample of older men.

METHODS

The current investigation used data from 1,349 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. From 1990-1991 to 2008, 547 (41%) had died. We used exploratory factor analysis to extract facets of openness, followed by proportional hazards modeling to examine 18-year mortality risk.

RESULTS

Two facets emerged from the openness adjectives: intellect and creativity. In the fully adjusted model, only creativity predicted mortality risk. A 1-SD increase in creativity was associated with a 12% decrease in mortality risk.

DISCUSSION

The study demonstrated that consideration of facets allows for a more precise understanding of the personality-health association. Higher levels of creativity predict longer survival in a sample of older men which provides preliminary support of the protective role creativity has on health even at advanced ages.

Promoting successful cognitive aging: a comprehensive review

Promoting successful cognitive aging is a topic of major importance to individuals and the field of public health. This review presents a coherent framework not only for evaluating factors, protective activities, and enhancing agents that have already been proposed, but also ones that will be put forward in the future. The promotion of successful cognitive aging involves the dual goals of preventing loss of information processing capacity and cognitive reserve, and enhancing brain capacity and cognitive reserve. Four major lines of evidence are available for evaluating whether a proposed factor promotes successful cognitive aging: 1) epidemiologic/cohort studies; 2) animal/basic science studies; 3) human "proof-of-concept" studies; and 4) human intervention studies. Each line of evidence has advantages and limitations that will be discussed. Through illustrative examples, we trace the ways in which each method informs us about the potential value of several proposed factors. Currently, lines of converging evidence allow the strongest case to be made for physical and cognitively stimulating activities. Although epidemiological data seem to favor the use of statins to lower the risk of dementia, more definitive recommendations await further randomized controlled studies. There is presently no clear evidence that antioxidants or Ginkgo biloba promote successful cognitive aging. The impact of resveratrol, fish oil, and a long list of other proposed agents needs to be determined. Clinicians remain well-positioned to identify and aggressively treat vascular risk factors, diabetes, sleep disorders, and other conditions that may reduce brain capacity, and to encourage activities that can build cognitive reserve.

Differential hemodynamic response in affective circuitry with aging: an FMRI study of novelty, valence, and arousal

Emerging evidence indicates that stimulus novelty is affectively potent and reliably engages the amygdala and other portions of the affective workspace in the brain. Using fMRI, we examined whether novel stimuli remain affectively salient across the lifespan, and therefore, whether novelty processing--a potentially survival-relevant function--is preserved with aging. Nineteen young and 22 older healthy adults were scanned during observing novel and familiar affective pictures while estimating their own subjectively experienced aroused levels. We investigated age-related difference of magnitude of activation, hemodynamic time course, and functional connectivity of BOLD responses in the amygdala. Although there were no age-related differences in the peak response of the amygdala to novelty, older individuals showed a narrower, sharper (i.e., "peakier") hemodynamic time course in response to novel stimuli, as well as decreased connectivity between the left amygdala and the affective areas including orbito-frontal regions. These findings have relevance for understanding age-related differences in memory and affect regulation.

Stable behavioral inhibition and glucocorticoid production as predictors of longevity

Several personality/temperament traits have been linked to health outcomes in humans and animals but underlying physiological mechanisms for these differential outcomes are minimally understood. In this paper, we compared the strength of a behavioral trait (behavioral inhibition) and an associated physiological trait (glucocorticoid production) in predicting life span. In addition, we examined the relative stability of both the behavioral and physiological traits within individuals over a significant portion of adulthood, and tested the hypothesis that a stable behavioral trait is linked with a stable physiological bias. In a sample of 60 Sprague-Dawley male rats, we found that stable inhibition/neophobia was a stronger predictor of life span than stably elevated glucocorticoid production. In addition, these predictors appeared to have an additive influence on life span in that males with both risk factors (stable inhibition and consistently high glucocorticoid production) had the shortest life spans of all, suggesting both traits are important predictors of life span. Across a 4-month period in young adulthood, inhibition and glucocorticoid reactivity were relatively stable traits, however these two traits were not highly correlated with one another. Interestingly, baseline glucocorticoid production was a better predictor of life span than reactivity levels. The results indicate that glucocorticoid production in young adulthood is an important predictor of life span, although not as strong a predictor as inhibition, and that other physiological processes may further explain the shortened life span in behaviorally-inhibited individuals.

Decline in life satisfaction in old age: longitudinal evidence for links to distance-to-death

Using 12-year longitudinal data from deceased participants of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 414; age 70-103 years, at first occasion; M = 87 years, SD = 8.13), the authors examined whether and how old and very old individuals exhibit terminal decline in reported life satisfaction at the end of life. Relative to age-related decline, mortality-related decline (i.e., distance-to-death) accounted for more variance in interindividual differences in life satisfaction change and revealed steeper average rates of decline, by a factor of 2. By applying change-point growth models, the authors identified a point, about 4 years before death, at which decline showed a two-fold increase in steepness relative to the preterminal phase. For the oldest old (85+ years), a threefold increase was observed. Established mortality predictors, including sex, comorbidities, dementia, and cognition, accounted for only small portions of interindividual differences in mortality-related change in life satisfaction. The authors conclude that late-life changes in subjective well-being are related to mechanisms predicting death and suggest routes for further inquiry.

Behavioral inhibition and glucocorticoid dynamics in a rodent model

Behavioral inhibition (i.e. avoidance of unfamiliar) has been linked to significant differences in stress physiology and health. Developing an animal model of this common temperament provides a means to experimentally study the development and physiology of this trait as it relates to stress-related health processes. To elaborate such an animal model, we studied individual rat responses to two novel situations that mimic behavioral inhibition tests for humans (one non-social and one social). We measured individual consistency of behavioral responses across tests and time, and examined the relationship between behavior and glucocorticoid levels in outbred Sprague-Dawley male rats. Individuals were consistent in their behavioral responses to the same novel environment over time, but not in their responses across two different environments (i.e. non-social vs. social). A third of males were slow to approach novelty in both arenas (INHIBITED) and another third were fast to approach in both arenas (NON-INHIBITED). Behavioral inhibition was relatively stable across time and was associated with increased glucocorticoid production at baseline and in response to novelty but not during a post-novelty recovery period. Glucocorticoid levels were more closely related to their responses to the social novel arena than the non-social arena. Thus, behavioral inhibition is associated with acute and basal glucocorticoid over production and social inhibition is a more important predictor of adrenal activity than non-social inhibition. These preliminary observations provide strong support for an animal model of human behavioral inhibition and identify specific aspect of glucocorticoid production dynamics to examine in behaviorally inhibited children.

Cognitive status impacts age-related changes in attention to novel and target events in normal adults

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between the cognitive status of normal adults and age-related changes in attention to novel and target events. Old, middle-age, and young subjects, divided into cognitively high and cognitively average performing groups, viewed repetitive standard stimuli, infrequent target stimuli, and unique novel visual stimuli. Subjects controlled viewing duration by a button press that led to the onset of the next stimulus. They also responded to targets by pressing a foot pedal. The amount of time spent looking at different kinds of stimuli served as a measure of visual attention and exploratory activity. Cognitively high performers spent more time viewing novel stimuli than cognitively average performers. The magnitude of the difference between cognitively high and cognitively average performing groups was largest among old subjects. Cognitively average performers had slower and less accurate responses to targets than cognitively high performers. The results provide strong evidence that the link between engagement by novelty and higher cognitive performance increases with age. Moreover, the results support the notion of there being different patterns of normal cognitive aging and the need to identify the factors that influence them.