Feeling How Old I Am: Subjective Age Is Associated With Estimated Brain Age

Effects of Persistent Depression on Recall Memory are Moderated by Subjective Age Levels: Evidence From Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Results concerning memory performance in older adults with persistent-depression versus other depressive states (i.e., no-depression, past-depression and current-depression) are disparate. This study examined if persistent-depression is linked with impaired memory (measured by recall), and whether this link is moderated by one's feeling older or younger (subjective age). The study used data from waves 5 and 6 of SHARE-Israel (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe), collected in 2013 and 2015. This representative sample focuses on adults aged 50 and above (N = 1254, mean age = 68.4 ± 9.02). Each wave assessed depression, immediate and delayed recall, fluency and numeracy; subjective age was assessed only at 2015. The main moderation effect was analysed with a hierarchical regression analysis. Memory impairments in the persistent-depression group were evident only for those feeling older. There were no effects of subjective age on fluency and numeracy tasks. Limitations include usage of self-report measures to assess depression, as well as applying a minimal inter-wave duration (2 years) to assess persistent depression. Results are aligned with a resource-stress account of subjective which claims that one's subjective age refelcts a ratio of resoucres-to-stress. Implications suggest that challenges of ageing in the shadow of depression can be compounded by feeling older, that memory (vs. other cognitive tasks) may be uniquely linked with subjective age, and that feeling older is a potential risk factor for impaired memory in persistent-depression. The importance of possible interventions aimed at lowering subjective age are mentioned.

Superiority illusion in older adults: Volume and functional connectivity of the precuneus

Aim

Superiority illusion (SI), a cognitive bias where individuals perceive themselves as better than others, may serve as a psychological mechanism that contributes to well-being and resilience in older adults. However, the specific neural basis of SI in elderly populations remains underexplored. This study aims to identify brain regions partially associated with SI, exploring its potential role in adaptive psychological processes.

Methods

This study combined a behavioral task, voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analyses to investigate the neural substrates of the SI in a cohort of 145 participants, including young (n = 84), middle-aged (n = 37), and older adults (n = 24).

Results

Our findings indicated that higher SI scores in older adults were correlated with greater gray matter volume in the right precuneus and stronger rsFC between the right precuneus and the left lateral occipital cortex. However, these correlations were not evident in younger and middle-aged groups.

Conclusion

Our findings underscore the importance of the right precuneus and its connectivity in the manifestation of the SI, particularly in older adults, highlighting its potential role in adaptive aging processes.

Psychological Well-Being and Self-Aging Attitudes Moderate the Association between Subjective Age and Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Views of aging include peoples' assessment of their own aging process and their subjective age. Positive views of aging relate to a improved psychological well-being which predicts better physical and mental health. While these relationships were substantially studied, the moderating roles of self-aging attitudes and psychological well-being in the subjective age-age discrimination connection have been much less explored. The current study used a convenience sample of 568 participants (mean = 66.21y, SD = 11.95, age range 50-95), 55.8% women, 67.1% employed. In line with the hypotheses, young subjective age and psychological well-being were connected to less age discrimination in the workplace, and higher psychological well-being mitigated the subjective age-age discrimination at work connection. When the perception of old age as a period of loss was added to the model, adults who perceived old age as a period of loss and reported lower levels of psychological well-being demonstrated the strongest relationship between an increase in subjective age and an increase in age-related discrimination at work. The findings emphasize the importance of the psychological well-being of older employees as a resource for improving their attitudes towards their last years at work.

Associations among loneliness, internal locus of control and subjective accelerated ageing in older adults who received the booster vaccination

BACKGROUND

A rise in loneliness among older adults since the COVID-19 outbreak, even after vaccination, has been highlighted. Loneliness has deleterious consequences, with specific effects on perceptions of the ageing process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coping with stressful life events and the challenges of ageing may result in a perception of acceleration of this process.

AIM

Studies have shown a buffering effect of an internal locus of control in the relationship between COVID-19 stress and mental distress. The current study examined whether loneliness predicts subjective accelerated ageing and whether internal locus of control moderates this relationship.

METHOD

Two waves of community-dwelling older adults (M = 70.44, s.d. = 5.95; age range 61-88 years), vaccinated three times, were sampled by a web-survey company. Participants completed the questionnaire after the beginning of the third vaccination campaign and reported again 4 months later on loneliness, internal locus of control and subjective accelerated ageing level in the second wave.

RESULTS

Participants with higher levels of loneliness presented 4 months later with higher subjective accelerated ageing. Participants with a low level of internal locus of control presented 4 months later with high subjective accelerated ageing, regardless of their loneliness level. Participants with a high level of internal locus of control and a low level of loneliness presented with the lowest subjective accelerated ageing 4 months later.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings emphasise the deleterious effects of loneliness and low internal locus of control on older adults' perception of their ageing process. Practitioners should focus their interventions not only on loneliness but also on improving the sense of internal locus of control to improve subjective accelerated ageing.

Brain age prediction across the human lifespan using multimodal MRI data

Measuring differences between an individual's age and biological age with biological information from the brain have the potential to provide biomarkers of clinically relevant neurological syndromes that arise later in human life. To explore the effect of multimodal brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features on the prediction of brain age, we investigated how multimodal brain imaging data improved age prediction from more imaging features of structural or functional MRI data by using partial least squares regression (PLSR) and longevity data sets (age 6-85 years). First, we found that the age-predicted values for each of these ten features ranged from high to low: cortical thickness (R = 0.866, MAE = 7.904), all seven MRI features (R = 0.8594, MAE = 8.24), four features in structural MRI (R = 0.8591, MAE = 8.24), fALFF (R = 0.853, MAE = 8.1918), gray matter volume (R = 0.8324, MAE = 8.931), three rs-fMRI feature (R = 0.7959, MAE = 9.744), mean curvature (R = 0.7784, MAE = 10.232), ReHo (R = 0.7833, MAE = 10.122), ALFF (R = 0.7517, MAE = 10.844), and surface area (R = 0.719, MAE = 11.33). In addition, the significance of the volume and size of brain MRI data in predicting age was also studied. Second, our results suggest that all multimodal imaging features, except cortical thickness, improve brain-based age prediction. Third, we found that the left hemisphere contributed more to the age prediction, that is, the left hemisphere showed a greater weight in the age prediction than the right hemisphere. Finally, we found a nonlinear relationship between the predicted age and the amount of MRI data. Combined with multimodal and lifespan brain data, our approach provides a new perspective for chronological age prediction and contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between brain disorders and aging.

To Be Frail or Not to Be Frail: This Is the Question-A Critical Narrative Review of Frailty

Many factors have contributed to rendering frailty an emerging, relevant, and very popular concept. First, many pandemics that have affected humanity in history, including COVID-19, most recently, have had more severe effects on frail people compared to non-frail ones. Second, the increase in human life expectancy observed in many developed countries, including Italy has led to a rise in the percentage of the older population that is more likely to be frail, which is why frailty is much a more common concern among geriatricians compared to other the various health-care professionals. Third, the stratification of people according to the occurrence and the degree of frailty allows healthcare decision makers to adequately plan for the allocation of available human professional and economic resources. Since frailty is considered to be fully preventable, there are relevant consequences in terms of potential benefits both in terms of the clinical outcome and healthcare costs. Frailty is becoming a popular, pervasive, and almost omnipresent concept in many different contexts, including clinical medicine, physical health, lifestyle behavior, mental health, health policy, and socio-economic planning sciences. The emergence of the new "science of frailty" has been recently acknowledged. However, there is still debate on the exact definition of frailty, the pathogenic mechanisms involved, the most appropriate method to assess frailty, and consequently, who should be considered frail. This narrative review aims to analyze frailty from many different aspects and points of view, with a special focus on the proposed pathogenic mechanisms, the various factors that have been considered in the assessment of frailty, and the emerging role of biomarkers in the early recognition of frailty, particularly on the role of mitochondria. According to the extensive literature on this topic, it is clear that frailty is a very complex syndrome, involving many different domains and affecting multiple physiological systems. Therefore, its management should be directed towards a comprehensive and multifaceted holistic approach and a personalized intervention strategy to slow down its progression or even to completely reverse the course of this condition.

Correlates of felt age in caregivers of people with dementia: findings from the IDEAL study

Objective

Family relationships influence how people appraise their own aging and how their appraisals impact their health. We analyzed felt age (FA) among family caregivers of people with dementia.

Methods and measures

We used a stratified sample of 1,020 spousal and 202 adult-child caregivers from the IDEAL study. We estimated cross-sectional associations and bidirectional influences between caregivers' FA and their health and wellbeing (depression, number of health conditions, stress, positive aspects of caregiving) over 2 years.

Results

Among spousal caregivers, 25% had a younger FA and 36% had an older FA. Among adult-child caregivers, 21.8% had a younger FA and 36.1% had an older FA. In spousal and adult-child caregivers an older FA was cross-sectionally associated with higher depression, number of health conditions, and stress, and fewer positive aspects of caregiving. In spousal caregivers, hours of care per day moderated the association between FA and depression, and FA was associated with stress 1 year later.

Conclusion

Caregiving may impact FA and its relationship with health. We urge continued research on the connections between caregiving and FA, and how interventions might support caregivers' positive views on their own aging, which will translate views on aging scholarship to meaningfully improve caregivers' lives.

The Relationship between Subjective Aging and Cognition in Elderly People: A Systematic Review

There is a growing body of evidence on the effects of subjective aging on health, well-being and quality of life. This review aims to synthesize findings about the link between subjective aging and cognition and cognitive decline. Furthermore, it provides an examination of variation sources such as subjective aging construct, cognitive domains, measures employed, age and moderator variables. A systematic search was performed in PubMed, PsychInfo and Web of Science, as well as grey literature searches in Google Scholar, OpenGrey, WorldCat and NDLTD, which resulted in 59 reports being included. Subjective aging is a relevant construct in the explanation and prediction of cognitive aging and cognitive decline in elderly adults. More positive views about own aging and self-perceptions of aging, as well as a younger subjective age, were consistently related to better cognition and lower risk of cognitive decline. However, there were differences due to subjective aging subdimensions and cognitive domains, as well as an effect of age. Additionally, there were concerns about the content validity of some measures employed, such as the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale for subjective aging and the Mini Mental State Examination for global cognition. Further studies should employ longitudinal designs with a process-based approach to cognition and precise subjective aging measures.

Dental anxiety and ageing anxiety: Moderated mediation roles of Oral Health-Related Quality of Life and subjective accelerated ageing

BACKGROUND

Oral health and its relation to ageing is an important topic often neglected among geriatric populations. Proper oral rehabilitation may aid in alleviating mental health burdens in such populations.

OBJECTIVES

The present study aimed to explore the association between dental anxiety and ageing anxiety, with regard to the interplay of Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) as mediator and subjective accelerated ageing as a moderator.

METHODS

A total of 577 participants with mean age 72.78 years (SD = 3.832, range = 68-87) were recruited via a survey company in Israel. They completed a self-report battery of questionnaires about dental anxiety, OHRQoL, subjective accelerated ageing and ageing anxiety, along with their informed consent.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that dental anxiety was positively associated with ageing anxiety (direct effect), and that OHRQoL mediated the link between dental anxiety and ageing anxiety (indirect effect). Additionally, subjective accelerated ageing moderated the positive link between dental anxiety and OHRQoL, as well as the positive link between OHRQoL and ageing anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide insight for the roles of OHRQoL and subjective accelerated ageing among older adults between dental anxiety and ageing anxiety. Tailoring oral rehabilitation interventions that focus on these factors are warranted to improve older adults' dental health.

The paradox of subjective age: age(ing) in the self-presentation of older adults

OBJECTIVES

Studies have shown that when people grow older, the negative perceptions about age(ing) become self-directed. In this study, we examined if and how this assertion is expressed in the self-presentation of older adults.

DESIGN

To explore this issue, we undertook an online survey with 818 Israeli older adults (aged 65-90) who were asked to present themselves in writing, using an open question and to choose the age terms that they preferred, relying on a multiple-choice question. Responses were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using "word cloud" and linguistic inquiry.

RESULTS

The analysis indicated three ways of coping with the issue of age in one's self-presentation: Absence of old age - older people who blur their processes of aging; Camouflaged aging - older people who emphasize their age by using a line of self-ageism; Multiplicity of old age terms - the existing gap between what is being used by people and the ideal related to the use of existing age terms. The findings highlight the role of subjective age in one's self-presentations.

CONCLUSIONS

The results point to the ambivalence that older people feel in relation to their age(ing) and especially reflect the paradox of subjective age. That is, on the one hand studies have stressed the positive aspects of this practice, whereas on the other hand, subjective age possibly reflects a response to internalized negative stereotypes and prejudice about old age(ing). In this sense, this study expands the knowledge in the field of self-presentation and (subjective) age in the second half of life.

In the Eye of the Storm: Entrepreneurs and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Crisis

In this paper, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of entrepreneurs. We surveyed a representative sample of Swedish entrepreneurs and wage employees at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey data, combined with register data, show that the COVID-19 outbreak has a negative effect on the well-being of entrepreneurs in terms of increased perceived stress. However, this negative effect is weaker for entrepreneurs who feel younger than their chronological age and entrepreneurs who are geographically distant from the epicenter of the crisis.

Turning Back the Clock: A Retrospective Single-Blind Study on Brain Age Change in Response to Nutraceuticals Supplementation vs. Lifestyle Modifications

BACKGROUND

There is a growing consensus that chronological age (CA) is not an accurate indicator of the aging process and that biological age (BA) instead is a better measure of an individual's risk of age-related outcomes and a more accurate predictor of mortality than actual CA. In this context, BA measures the "true" age, which is an integrated result of an individual's level of damage accumulation across all levels of biological organization, along with preserved resources. The BA is plastic and depends upon epigenetics. Brain state is an important factor contributing to health- and lifespan.

METHODS AND OBJECTIVE

Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG)-derived brain BA (BBA) is a suitable and promising measure of brain aging. In the present study, we aimed to show that BBA can be decelerated or even reversed in humans (N = 89) by using customized programs of nutraceutical compounds or lifestyle changes (mean duration = 13 months).

RESULTS

We observed that BBA was younger than CA in both groups at the end of the intervention. Furthermore, the BBA of the participants in the nutraceuticals group was 2.83 years younger at the endpoint of the intervention compared with their BBA score at the beginning of the intervention, while the BBA of the participants in the lifestyle group was only 0.02 years younger at the end of the intervention. These results were accompanied by improvements in mental-physical health comorbidities in both groups. The pre-intervention BBA score and the sex of the participants were considered confounding factors and analyzed separately.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the obtained results support the feasibility of the goal of this study and also provide the first robust evidence that halting and reversal of brain aging are possible in humans within a reasonable (practical) timeframe of approximately one year.

What does feeling younger or older than one's chronological age mean to men and women? Qualitative and quantitative findings from the PROTECT study

OBJECTIVE

We explored which factors are associated with subjective age (SA), i.e. feeling younger, the same as, or older than one's chronological age, and whether these factors differ between men and women and between two age sub-groups.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study using qualitative and quantitative data for 1457 individuals (mean age= 67.2 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Participants reported how old they feel they are and provided comments in relation to their SA judgments.

RESULTS

By using content analysis participants' comments were assigned to 13 categories, grouped into three higher-order categories (antecedents of age-related thoughts, mental processes, and issues when measuring subjective age). SA may result from the interaction between factors that increase or decrease age-related thoughts and mental processes that individuals use to interpret age-related changes. Chi-squared tests show that individuals reporting an older SA are more likely to experience significant negative changes and to engage in negative age-related thoughts than individuals reporting an age-congruent SA or a younger SA. Women experience a more negative SA and more age-salient events than men.

CONCLUSION

Individuals reporting an older SA may benefit from interventions promoting adaptation to negative age-related changes. There is the need to eradicate negative societal views of older women.

Subjective age and the association with intrinsic capacity, functional ability, and health among older adults in Norway

This study investigates the relationships between subjective age, intrinsic capacity, functional ability and health among Norwegians aged 60 years and older. The Norwegian Survey of Health and Ageing (NORSE) is a population-based, cross-sectional study of home-dwelling individuals aged 60-96 years in the former county of Oppland. Age- and sex-adjusted regression models were used to investigate the gap between subjective and chronological age and this gap's association with self-reported and objectively measured intrinsic capacity (covering all six sub domains defined by WHO), health, and functional ability among 817 NORSE participants. The results show most participants felt younger than their chronological age (86.5%), while relatively few felt the same as their chronological age (8.3%) or older (5.2%). The mean subjective age was 13.8 years lower than mean chronological age. Participants with urinal incontinence, poor vision, or poor hearing felt 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) (0.6, 5.5)], 2.9 [95% CI (0.2, 5.6)], and 2.9 [95% CI (0.3, 5.5)] years older, respectively, than participants without those conditions, whereas none of the following factors-anxiety, depression, chronic disease, Short Physical Performance Battery score, grip strength, cognition, or frailty-significantly had an impact on the gap. In line with prior research, this study finds that feeling considerably younger than one's chronological age is common at older ages. However, those with poor hearing, poor vision, and urinal incontinence felt less young compared to those not having these conditions. These relationships may exert undesirable effects on vitality and autonomy, which are considered key factors of intrinsic capacity and healthy ageing.

Association between older subjective age and poor sleep quality: a population-based study

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association of subjective age (SA) with sleep quality in an adult population.

METHODS

In the Korean Sleep and Headache Study, 2,349 participants (49.2% men; 48.1 ± 16.4 years old) were interviewed face-to-face using structured questionnaires between September and December 2018. SA was assessed by asking participants their perceived age in years and then compared with their chronological age (CA). Participants were assigned to three groups: feeling younger, feeling their age, and feeling older. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Association between SA and sleep quality was analyzed with multiple linear regression controlling for demographics, psychosocial, and sleep characteristics.

RESULTS

The group feeling older (n = 404, 17.2%; men, 58.2%; age, 46.5 ± 16.2 years) had worse sleep quality than the groups feeling younger and feeling their age (PSQI score, 4.3 ± 2.7, 3.8 ± 2.4, 3.4 ± 2.1, respectively, p <.001; prevalence of poor sleep quality, 29.0%, 18.4%, 13.5% respectively, p <.001). The association between SA and the PSQI score remained significant after adjusting for confounders (β = 1.05, 95% confidence interval 0.26, 1.83; p <.001). Stratified analyses by sex and CA showed that the association between SA and the PSQI score was significant only in women and in middle-aged and older group (aged 50-79), suggesting that sex and CA modified the association.

CONCLUSION

Age perception was associated with self-reported sleep quality, independent of CA. SA may be a useful marker that complements the conventional assessment of subjective sleep quality.

Pet ownership is associated with greater cognitive and brain health in a cross-sectional sample across the adult lifespan

Human-animal interactions that stem from pet ownership have a wide range of benefits for social, emotional, and physical health. These factors also tend to improve cognition. Following this logic, owning a pet could indirectly enhance cognitive and brain health through mechanisms like improvements in well-being, socialization, and decreased stress. In the present study, cross-sectional data were drawn from the Alabama Brain Study on Risk for Dementia in which 95 participants aged 20–74 were recruited. Specifically, 56 adults were pet-owners and 39 adults were not pet-owners. Multivariate analyses revealed that pet ownership was related to higher levels of cognition and larger brain structures, and these effects were largest in dog owners. The most consistent cognitive relationships were found with better processing speed, attentional orienting, and episodic memory for stories, and with dorsal attention, limbic, and default mode networks. Moreover, we show that owning a pet can reduce one’s brain age by up to 15 years. Pet ownership was not related to indirect factors including social, emotional, and physical health. We found also that older adults’ brain health benefited from owning more than one pet versus owning one or fewer pets. These findings indicate that pet ownership, especially dog ownership, may play a role in enhancing cognitive performance across the adult lifespan, which could in turn influence protection against age-related cognitive decline.

Subjective age and its relationships with physical, mental, and cognitive functioning: A cross-sectional study of 1,004 community-dwelling adults across the lifespan

Perceived younger age is associated with positive health outcomes in existing literature. Few studies have examined these associations using a wide range of variables in large sample of adults of all ages. The objective of present study was to characterize the discrepancy between chronological age (CA) and subjective age (SA) in a large sample of community-dwelling adults across the lifespan, investigate associations with mental, physical, and cognitive health, and examine how it is related to a broad array of psychosocial variables relevant to well-being. Cross-sectional data from 1,004 individuals aged 21-100+ years from the Successful AGing Evaluation (SAGE) study were used for this analysis. Data included self-report measures of physical health (SF-36 - Physical Component), mental health composite score (created using CES-D Happiness scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, SF-36 Mental Component, Brief Symptom Inventory Anxiety Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Perceived Stress Scale), Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status - modified (TICS-m), and validated measures of various positive psychological variables such as meaning in life and optimism. On average, SA was 11.5 years younger than CA (SD 11.3). The discrepancy increased with CA. A younger SA compared to CA was associated with better mental and physical health in all age groups and was positively associated with measures of presence of meaning in life, successful aging, optimism, personal mastery, resilience, curiosity, hope, and social support. The association between age discrepancy and cognitive functioning was not statistically significant. These findings indicate that SA is potentially valuable for the purposes of clinical assessment and intervention, and this possibility should be investigated in future research.

What Determines That Older Adults Feel Younger Than They Are? Results From a Nationally Representative Study in Germany

Background

There is increasing evidence that subjective age is an important predictor of beneficial health outcomes besides chronological age. However, little is known about the factors associated with younger subjective age. This study aimed to identify which factors are predictive of feeling younger in old age. In this context, feeling younger was defined as an individual's perception of being younger than their current chronological age.

Methods

Data from 4,665 community-dwelling older people were drawn from wave 7 (2020) of the German Aging Survey (DEAS), a nationally representative study in Germany. Network, mediation, and binomial logistic regression analyses were performed to reveal the associations between feeling younger and biopsychosocial factors.

Results

A total of 4,039 participants reported feeling younger, while 626 did not. Older chronological age, engaging in sports more frequently, a better standard of living, a better state of health, higher satisfaction with life, more positive attitudes toward one's aging, and fewer depressive symptoms are associated with feeling younger in older people.

Conclusion

The present study provides novel and consistent evidence regarding the association between feeling younger and biopsychosocial factors. Further research is needed to confirm these factors and identify how they can be adapted in potential intervention studies to generate the life and health circumstances that allow older people the benefit of feeling younger.

Creative productivity of elderly scientists

The article presents the results of studying the personality characteristics of elderly scientists who have maintained scientific productivity for a long time. The problem that has to be solved and has got a huge scientific and practical significance is to find the psychological preconditions for the peak achievements of scientists and to define the social and psychological factors that contribute to maintaining the high productivity of elderly scientists for a long time.

The aim of the study is to determine the key personality traits of famous elderly scientists at the stages of their professional development.

Research methods. The presented data were obtained using the research interview “Life Values and Life Path”, developed by V.S.  Mukhina. Empirical material was collected in the course of interviewing famous Russian scientists of older age (from 65 to 94 years old), involved in research activities and making a significant contribution to the development of the humanities and technical sciences. When forming the sample, we followed the logic of V.S. Mukhina, who interviewed older scientists who are the founders and leaders of well-known scientific schools, who have a doctorate in science, the academic title of professor, membership in the academy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences or Russian Academy of Education and continue active scientific work. Data on the peak achievements of older scientists were taken from the scientometric databases of the Russian Science Citation Index and the Russian State Library.

Results. The data representing the peak achievements of the elderly scientists were taken from the scientometric databases and interpreted according to the provisions of differential and acmeological analysis for professional activities of scientists. The analysis of interviews, autobiographical descriptions and peak achievements of the elderly scientists allowed to reveal that the peak achievement (acme) is the joint result of psychological preconditions (personal traits of scientists, physical conditions) and social conditions of professional activity (social status of a scientist, belonging to a scientific school, availability of organizational and financial resources). The several productive periods, which are called within the acmeology field as “micro-acme”, can be indicated in the scientific work of elderly scientists throughout the period of their scientific activity. At the same time, the peak achievements of scientists as a rule are spaced in time with an optimal combination of preconditions and conditions for scientific creativity.

Linking Brain Age Gap to Mental and Physical Health in the Berlin Aging Study II

From a biological perspective, humans differ in the speed they age, and this may manifest in both mental and physical health disparities. The discrepancy between an individual's biological and chronological age of the brain ("brain age gap") can be assessed by applying machine learning techniques to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. Here, we examined the links between brain age gap and a broad range of cognitive, affective, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and physical health variables in up to 335 adults of the Berlin Aging Study II. Brain age gap was assessed using a validated prediction model that we previously trained on MRI scans of 32,634 UK Biobank individuals. Our statistical analyses revealed overall stronger evidence for a link between higher brain age gap and less favorable health characteristics than expected under the null hypothesis of no effect, with 80% of the tested associations showing hypothesis-consistent effect directions and 23% reaching nominal significance. The most compelling support was observed for a cluster covering both cognitive performance variables (episodic memory, working memory, fluid intelligence, digit symbol substitution test) and socioeconomic variables (years of education and household income). Furthermore, we observed higher brain age gap to be associated with heavy episodic drinking, higher blood pressure, and higher blood glucose. In sum, our results point toward multifaceted links between brain age gap and human health. Understanding differences in biological brain aging may therefore have broad implications for future informed interventions to preserve mental and physical health in old age.

Subjective age and multiple cognitive domains in two longitudinal samples

OBJECTIVE

Subjective age is consistently related to memory performance and global cognitive function among older adults. The present study examines whether subjective age is prospectively related to specific domains of cognitive function.

METHOD

Participants were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, N = 2549, Mean Age = 69.66, SD = 7.36) and the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS, N = 2499, Mean Age = 46.24, SD = 11.25). In both samples, subjective age, depressive symptoms, chronic conditions, and demographic factors were assessed at baseline. Four domains of cognition were assessed 8 years later in the HRS and almost 20 years later in the MIDUS: episodic memory, speed-attention-executive, verbal fluency, and numeric reasoning. HRS also assessed visuospatial ability.

RESULTS

Regression analysis revealed that an older subjective age was related to worse performance in the domains of episodic memory and speed-attention-executive in both samples. The effect size for the difference between a younger and an older subjective age was d = 0.14 (MIDUS) and d = 0.24 (HRS) for episodic memory and d = 0.25 (MIDUS) and d = 0.33 (HRS) for speed-attention-executive. Feeling older was related to lower verbal fluency in HRS (d = 0.30) but not in MIDUS, whereas no association was found with numeric reasoning in either sample. An older subjective age was related to lower visuospatial ability in HRS (d = 0.25).

CONCLUSION

Subjective age is prospectively related to performance in different cognitive domains. The associations between subjective age and both episodic memory and speed-attention-executive functions were replicable and robust over up to 20 years of follow-up.

Psychological Predictors of Perceived Age and Chronic Pain Impact in Individuals With and Without Knee Osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVE

Chronological age is a risk factor in chronic pain; however, aging research supports the premise that physical and psychological health may better predict perceived age. Given the lack of evidence on perceived age in the context of chronic pain, the current study presents novel findings about the relationship between perceived age, chronic pain impact, and psychological function in adults with and without knee osteoarthritis.

METHODS

This secondary analysis was part of an ongoing multisite observational cohort study to understand the progression of knee pain and disability. Community-dwelling adults (N=227) ages 45+ completed measures of trait resilience, trait positive and negative affect, pain catastrophizing, subjective perceptions of age, and the Graded Chronic Pain Scale.

RESULTS

On average, participants reported feeling 10 years younger than their chronological age; however, this effect was attenuated in individuals reporting high-impact pain. Lower perceived age was associated with lower pain impact (low pain/low disability), while higher perceived age correlated with higher pain impact (high pain/high disability) and more adverse psychological effects. Using hierarchical linear regression, high-impact pain and positive affect emerged as statistically significant predictors of perceived age, whereas no differences were observed among trait resilience, negative affect, or pain catastrophizing.

DISCUSSION

These findings highlight the importance of a biopsychosocial approach in understanding the intersection between psychological and physical factors associated with chronic pain. Addressing negative self-perceptions of aging, while simultaneously augmenting positive affect, through psychological therapies may mitigate pain and disability.

Multi-channel attention-fusion neural network for brain age estimation: Accuracy, generality, and interpretation with 16,705 healthy MRIs across lifespan

Brain age estimated by machine learning from T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (T1w MRIs) can reveal how brain disorders alter brain aging and can help in the early detection of such disorders. A fundamental step is to build an accurate age estimator from healthy brain MRIs. We focus on this step, and propose a framework to improve the accuracy, generality, and interpretation of age estimation in healthy brain MRIs. For accuracy, we used one of the largest sample sizes (N = 16,705). For each subject, our proposed algorithm first explicitly splits the T1w image, which has been commonly treated as a single-channel 3D image in other studies, into two 3D image channels representing contrast and morphometry information. We further proposed a "fusion-with-attention" deep learning convolutional neural network (FiA-Net) to learn how to best fuse the contrast and morphometry image channels. FiA-Net recognizes varying contributions across image channels at different brain anatomy and different feature layers. In contrast, multi-channel fusion does not exist for brain age estimation, and is mostly attention-free in other medical image analysis tasks (e.g., image synthesis, or segmentation), where treating channels equally may not be optimal. For generality, we used lifespan data 0-97 years of age for real-world utility; and we thoroughly tested FiA-Net for multi-site and multi-scanner generality by two phases of cross-validations in discovery and replication data, compared to most other studies with only one phase of cross-validation. For interpretation, we directly measured each artificial neuron's correlation with the chronological age, compared to other studies looking at the saliency of features where salient features may or may not predict age. Overall, FiA-Net achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 3.00 years and Pearson correlation r=0.9840 with known chronological ages in healthy brain MRIs 0-97 years of age, comparing favorably with state-of-the-art algorithms and studies for accuracy and generality across sites and datasets. We also provided interpretations on how different artificial neurons and real neuroanatomy contribute to the age estimation.

Pitfalls in brain age analyses

Over the past decade, there has been an abundance of research on the difference between age and age predicted using brain features, which is commonly referred to as the “brain age gap.” Researchers have identified that the brain age gap, as a linear transformation of an out‐of‐sample residual, is dependent on age. As such, any group differences on the brain age gap could simply be due to group differences on age. To mitigate the brain age gap's dependence on age, it has been proposed that age be regressed out of the brain age gap. If this modified brain age gap is treated as a corrected deviation from age, model accuracy statistics such as R² will be artificially inflated to the extent that it is highly improbable that an R² value below .85 will be obtained no matter the true model accuracy. Given the limitations of proposed brain age analyses, further theoretical work is warranted to determine the best way to quantify deviation from normality.

Idade subjetiva em idosos ativos

Objetivo: analisar a idade subjetiva de idosos ativos, participantes de programa de universidade aberta e verificar a associação com variáveis sociodemográficas e de autopercepção de saúde e bem-estar.Métodos: estudo transversal, retrospectivo e observacional. Dados obtidos a partir de entrevista realizada no ato da matrícula de idosos em programa universitário, na qual são coletadas informações sobre dados sociodemográficos, de saúde e de escolaridade. Com relação à saúde, bem-estar, memória e estado físico, os idosos deveriam atribuir uma nota autoavaliativa. Sobre a idade subjetiva, o questionamento era: “Que idade o senhor(a) sente que tem?”. As variáveis foram descritas por média e desvio padrão com testes t de Student e coeficiente de correlação de Spearman.Resultados: foram analisados dados de 395 idosos, sendo 359 (90.9%) mulheres. A idade cronológica variou entre 60 e 96 anos, com média de idade cronológica de 71,5±6,8 anos. Já a média da idade subjetiva foi de 57,2±14,0 anos, havendo diferença significativa entre elas (p<0,001). Verificou-se correlação somente entre a idade subjetiva e a saúde percebida (rs=-0,149; p=0,003).Conclusão: os dados evidenciaram que no grupo de idosos ativos avaliado, houve diferença entre a idade cronológica e a idade subjetiva, sendo a subjetiva significativamente menor. Houve associação entre saúde percebida e idade subjetiva.

Subjective age, depressive symptoms, and cognitive functioning across five domains

Objective: Younger subjective age predicts better episodic memory and executive functioning performance independent of chronological age. This study examined whether subjective age is associated with performance in five cognitive domains, quantified the extent to which these relationships are mediated by depressive symptoms, and tested whether these associations are moderated by chronological age.Method: Participants in this cross-sectional study included 993 adults aged 65 and older from the Health and Retirement Study's 2016 Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol. Moderated mediation models estimated direct and indirect effects of subjective age on factor scores representing episodic memory, executive functioning, language, visuoconstruction, and speed through depressive symptoms and tested whether associations differed according to chronological age.Results: Depressive symptoms explained 21-32% of the associations between subjective age and language, speed, episodic memory, and executive functioning. Chronological age moderated the indirect effect involving language, such that depressive symptoms were more strongly related to worse language performance at older chronological ages. After accounting for indirect effects, direct effects of younger subjective age remained for language and speed domains.Conclusions: This study extends research on the cognitive correlates of subjective age and demonstrates that depressive symptoms partly mediate these relationships. Subjective age may bemost strongly associated with language among individuals at older chronological ages not because they are more sensitive to the negative mental health impact of feeling older than they are but because they may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of depressive symptoms on language ability. Additional longitudinal research is needed to determine whether links between subjective age and cognition are causal versus predictive.

The aging brain: sleep, the circadian clock and exercise

Aging is a multifactorial process likely stemming from damage accumulation and/or a decline in maintenance and repair mechanisms in the organisms that eventually determine their lifespan. In our review, we focus on the morphological and functional alterations that the aging brain undergoes affecting sleep and the circadian clock in both human and rodent models. Although both species share mammalian features, differences have been identified on several experimental levels, which we outline in this review. Additionally, we delineate some challenges on the preferred analysis and we suggest that a uniform route is followed so that findings can be smoothly compared. We conclude by discussing potential interventions and highlight the influence of physical exercise as a beneficial lifestyle intervention, and its effect on healthy aging and longevity. We emphasize that even moderate age-matched exercise is able to ameliorate several aging characteristics as far as sleep and circadian rhythms are concerned, independent of the species studied.

Aging in Context: Incorporating Everyday Experiences Into the Study of Subjective Age

The age that a person feels is a strong predictor of their well-being and long-term health, beyond chronological age, showing that people have a self-awareness that provides insight into their aging process. It appears this insight has broad implications for a person's everyday life and functioning. One's subjective age is shaped by metacognitive beliefs about aging, including both expectations about typical changes but most notably the awareness and interpretation of personal experiences. Subjective age has been described as multidimensional, aligning with life domains such as cognitive, social, and physical functioning. This perspective, coupled with laboratory studies that manipulate subjective age, suggests that situational context has an important role in determining the age a person feels. Here we review literature on subjective age with a focus on how research and theoretical perspectives should be adapted to integrate momentary experiences. We propose a contextual model that will help discriminate the links between situational influences and subjective age, as well as resulting behaviors that impact health and well-being. While most research has considered subjective age to be a relatively stable variable, we provide a novel account of how daily life offers a variety of situational contexts and experiences that directly impact the age a person feels at a given moment. We propose that studying moment-to-moment context is a critical next step in understanding the associations between subjective age, lifestyle choices, and health outcomes.

Relationship between self-perceptions of aging and 'living well' among people with mild-to-moderate dementia: Findings from the ideal programme

OBJECTIVE

A primary goal for dementia research is to understand how to best support people to live well with dementia. Among cognitively healthy older individuals, more positive attitudes toward their own aging (ATOA) and/or feeling younger than their chronological age (i.e. having a younger subjective age: SA) are associated with better quality of life (QoL), satisfaction with life (SwL), and well-being (which are indicators of capability to live well), and fewer depressive symptoms. We tested whether people with dementia (PwD) with more positive ATOA and/or with a younger SA report better QoL, SwL, and well-being, and are less likely to experience depression.

METHODS

We used cross-sectional data from the IDEAL cohort baseline assessment (conducted between 2014 and 2016), comprising 1541 PwD residing in Great Britain [mean (range) age= 76.3 (43 to 98); 43.6% women].

RESULTS

More positive ATOA was associated with better QoL, SwL, well-being, and less likelihood of depression. Younger SA was associated with better QoL, SwL, well-being, and less likelihood of depression.

CONCLUSIONS

More positive ATOA and younger SA may be beneficial psychological resources that enhance capability to live well with dementia. Promoting more positive perceptions of aging at the societal level may help to equip people with the resilience needed to cope well after a diagnosis of dementia, and enhance the support available to people with dementia. Focusing on retained abilities and achievable goals may help to counteract the impact of negative age-related stereotypes on people with dementia, and enhance person-centered care.

Relationship between brain AD biomarkers and episodic memory performance in healthy aging

The presence of brain biomarkers can be observed decades before the first clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed to determine whether associations between biomarkers and episodic memory performance already exist in a healthy late middle-aged population or only in participants over 60 years old. Performance at the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test [FCSRT], the Logical Memory test and the Mnemonic Similarity Task [MST] was determined in sixty healthy participants (50-70 y.) with a negative status for amyloid-beta (Aβ) biomarker. We assessed Aβ cortical level and tau/neuroinflammation burden using PET scanner, and hippocampal atrophy with MRI scanner. Generalized linear mixed models showed that MST scores (recognition and pattern separation) were positively associated with hippocampal volume in participants over 60 years. No association between memory performance and Aβ and tau/neuroinflammation burden was found in the older or in the younger age group. This suggests that visual recognition memory and discrimination of lures may constitute early cognitive markers of memory decline in an older population.

Erratum: Publisher Correction to: An exploration of subjective age, actual age, age awareness, and engagement in everyday

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s10433-019-00534-w.].

Psychological aging, depression, and well-being

Aging is a multifactorial process, which affects the human body on every level and results in both biological and psychological changes. Multiple studies have demonstrated that a lower subjective age is associated with better mental and physical health, cognitive functions, well-being and satisfaction with life. In this work we propose a list of non-modifiable and modifiable factors that may possibly be influenced by subjective age and its changes across an individual's lifespan. These factors can be used for a future development of individual psychological aging clocks, which may be utilized as a sensitive measure for health status and overall life satisfaction. Furthermore, recent progress in artificial intelligence and biomarkers of biological aging have enabled scientists to discover and evaluate the efficacy of potential aging- and disease-modifying drugs and interventions. We propose that biomarkers of psychological age, which are just as important as those for biological age, may likewise be used for these purposes. Indeed, these two types of markers complement one another. We foresee the development of a broad range of parametric and deep psychological and biopsychological aging clocks, which may have implications for drug development and therapeutic interventions, and thus healthcare and other industries.

An exploration of subjective age, actual age, age awareness, and engagement in everyday behaviors

Considerable research has documented relationships between subjective age and consequential outcomes such as life satisfaction, daily stress, health, and even mortality. Less is known about associations between the age people perceive themselves to be and everyday behaviors that may serve as the paths to broader life outcomes. To begin to fill this gap, this study explored the frequency with which 196 US adults aged 55-87 years engaged in behaviors reflecting nine behavioral domains. Respondents also answered questions about their subjective age, age awareness, and actual age. Results showed that whereas actual age predicted engagement in some behaviors (e.g., retirement activities), subjective age predicted engagement in most others (e.g., personal, social, grooming, body-focused, trend activities), and age awareness predicted participation in yet others (e.g., medical activities). The present findings provide insights both about age-related everyday behaviors, and the ways that several perceptions of age are differentially linked to their occurrence.

Cultural differences in the association between subjective age and health: evidence from the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel)

Research has demonstrated that holding a young subjective age (i.e. feeling younger than one's chronological age) has been associated with various positive aspects of physical and psychological health. However, little is known about how such associations differ between cultural sub-groups within a given society. Accordingly, the current study focused on the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel) and aimed to explore the moderating role of culture on the association between subjective age and objective physical health, subjective physical health and psychological health. Data were collected from 1,793 respondents, who were classified into three groups: veteran Israeli Jews, immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Israeli Arab citizens. Age ranged from 50 to 105 (mean = 69.65, standard deviation = 9.49). All participants rated their subjective age and filled out scales examining six dimensions covering psychological health, as well as objective and subjective physical health. Across all examined dimensions, an older subjective age was associated with unfavourable health outcomes. For the majority of health dimensions, the subjective age–health links were most prominent among Israeli Arabs. Results are discussed from both a general societal standpoint (i.e. group differences in access to health services), as well as from the individual's specific role in his or her culture and society.

The role of subjective age in sustaining wellbeing and health in the second half of life

Subjective age (SA) is a core indicator of the individual ageing experience, with important consequences for successful ageing. The aim of the current study was to investigate the directions of the longitudinal associations between domains of SA and subjective wellbeing and physical functioning in the second half of life. We used three-wave survey data (2002, 2007 and 2017) spanning 15 years from the Norwegian Lifecourse, Ageing and Generation Study, including 6,292 persons born between 1922 and 1961. SA was measured with felt-age and ideal-age discrepancies, wellbeing with the Satisfaction of Life Scale and physical functioning with the Short-Form 12. Three-wave cross-lagged panel models were applied to assess the temporal relationships between the different domains of SA, life satisfaction and physical functioning, adjusted for age, gender and education. Findings indicated that wanting to be younger was negatively associated with life satisfaction and physical functioning over time. Felt-age discrepancies did not predict subsequent wellbeing or physical functioning. The results did not reveal any evidence for reversed effects, i.e. from functioning or life satisfaction to SA. Our findings support the psychological pathway from satisfaction with age(ing) to subjective wellbeing and physical functioning over time. Small ideal-age discrepancies reflect positive self-perceptions of ageing, which may help to accumulate psychological resources, guide behavioural regulation and support health.

Multimodality neuroimaging brain-age in UK biobank: relationship to biomedical, lifestyle, and cognitive factors

The brain-age paradigm is proving increasingly useful for exploring aging-related disease and can predict important future health outcomes. Most brain-age research uses structural neuroimaging to index brain volume. However, aging affects multiple aspects of brain structure and function, which can be examined using multimodality neuroimaging. Using UK Biobank, brain-age was modeled in n = 2205 healthy people with T1-weighted MRI, T2-FLAIR, T2∗, diffusion-MRI, task fMRI, and resting-state fMRI. In a held-out healthy validation set (n = 520), chronological age was accurately predicted (r = 0.78, mean absolute error = 3.55 years) using LASSO regression, higher than using any modality separately. Thirty-four neuroimaging phenotypes were deemed informative by the regression (after bootstrapping); predominantly gray-matter volume and white-matter microstructure measures. When applied to new individuals from UK Biobank (n = 14,701), significant associations with multimodality brain-predicted age difference (brain-PAD) were found for stroke history, diabetes diagnosis, smoking, alcohol intake and some, but not all, cognitive measures (corrected p < 0.05). Multimodality neuroimaging can improve brain-age prediction, and derived brain-PAD values are sensitive to biomedical and lifestyle factors that negatively impact brain and cognitive health.

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Brain-age was predicted from 6 different neuroimaging modalities.

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Combined multi-modality brain-age was more accurate than any single modality.

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Thirty-four neuroimaging measures were informative for brain-age prediction.

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Informative measures generally reflect brain volume and white-matter microstructure.

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Brain-age was associated with stroke, diabetes, smoking, alcohol and cognition.

Attitudes to ageing, biomarkers of ageing and mortality: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Objective

To investigate whether people with more positive attitudes to ageing are biologically younger as defined by leucocyte telomere length, accelerated DNA methylation GrimAge (AgeAccelGrim) and brain-predicted age difference, and whether these biomarkers explain relationships between attitudes to ageing and mortality.

Methods

We used linear regression to examine cross-sectionally attitudes to ageing (measured using the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire) and the three biomarkers in 758 adults, mean age 72.5 years, from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine longitudinally attitudes to ageing and mortality and the role of the biomarkers.

Results

More positive attitude to physical change was associated with younger biological age, as measured by AgeAccelGrim and brain-predicted age difference in age-adjusted and sex-adjusted models: for an SD higher score, AgeAccelGrim was lower by -0.73 (95% CI -1.03 to -0.42) of a year, and brain-predicted age difference was lower by -0.87 (1.51 to 0.23) of a year. Both associations were attenuated by adjustment for covariates and not significant after simultaneous adjustment for all covariates and correction for multiple testing. More positive attitudes to physical change were associated with lower mortality: for an SD higher score the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted HR (95% CI) was 0.66 (0.56 to 0.78). Adjustment for AgeAccelGrim or brain-predicted age difference attenuated this association slightly. It remained significant after adjustment for all covariates.

Conclusion

We found partial evidence that attitudes to ageing are linked with ageing biomarkers but they accounted for only a little of the association between attitudes and mortality.

Unbiased age-specific structural brain atlases for Chinese pediatric population

In magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies of child brain development, structural brain atlases usually serve as important references for the pediatric population, in which individual images are spatially normalized into a common or standard stereotactic space. However, the popular existing pediatric brain atlases (e.g., National Institutes of Health pediatric atlases, NIH-PD) are mostly based on MR images obtained from Caucasian populations and thus are not ideal for the characterization of the brains of Chinese children due to neuroanatomical differences related to genetic and environmental factors. Here, we use an unbiased template construction algorithm to create a set of age-specific Chinese pediatric (CHN-PD) atlases based on high-quality T1-and T2-weighted MR images from 328 cognitively normal Chinese children aged 6-12 years. The CHN-PD brain atlases include asymmetric and symmetric templates, sex-specific templates and tissue probability templates, and contain multiple age-specific templates at one-year intervals. A direct comparison of the CHN-PD and NIH-PD atlases reveals dramatic anatomical differences mainly in the bilateral frontal and parietal regions. After applying the CHN-PD and NIH-PD atlases to two independent Chinese pediatric datasets (N = 114 and N = 71), we find that the CHN-PD atlases result in significantly higher accuracy than the NIH-PD atlases in both predicting "brain age" and guiding brain tissue segmentation. These results suggest that the CHN-PD brain atlases are necessary for studies of the typical and atypical development of the Chinese pediatric population. These CHN-PD atlases have been released on the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC) website (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/chn-pd).

How to Measure Population Aging? The Answer Is Less than Obvious: A Review

Usually, population aging is measured to inform fiscal and social planning because it is considered to indicate the burden that an elderly population presents to the economic, social security, and health systems of a society. Measures of population aging are expected to indicate shifts in the distribution of individuals' attributes (e.g., chronological age, health) within a population that are relevant to assessing the burden. We claim that chronological age - even though it is the attribute most broadly used - may frequently not be the best measure to satisfy this purpose. A distribution of chronological age per se does not present a burden. Rather, burdens arise from the characteristics that supposedly or actually accompany chronological ages. We posit that in addition to chronological age, meaningful measures of population aging should reflect, for instance, the distribution of economic productivity, health, functional capacities, or biological age, as these attributes may more directly assess the burden on the socioeconomic and health systems. Here, we illustrate some limitations of measures of population aging based on each kind of measure, including chronological age, and review alternative measures that may better inform fiscal, social, and health planning.