时间认知的年老化及其神经机制

时间认知功能的增龄性衰退表现得较晚,主要在高龄老年人中表现出时间认知功能的衰退.随着年龄的增长,老年人内部时钟的速率变慢,变异增大.注意及记忆功能随年龄增长而衰退,这些一般认知功能的改变影响老年人的时间认知功能.正常的时间认知功能依赖于"核心-背景"时间加工脑网络结构和功能的完好,这些脑区或功能通路的障碍会导致时间认知功能的损伤.老年人在一定的年龄范围内,可以通过认知补偿策略保持相对完好的时间认知功能.

Age-Related Changes in Time Perception and The Underlying Neurobiological Mechanism

The onset of age-related differences in time perception occur late in human life.Research demonstrated that the proposed internal clock slows down and its variation increases as people get old.The general cognitive abilities such as attention and memory decline with age,leading to decline in time perception.Temporal estimation depends on the interaction of multiple brain regions,including regions that are consistently involved in temporal processing(the core networks)and regions that are activated when processing context-dependent information(the context networks).It suggests that time perception depends on the function of "core-context" brain networks.Some neurodegeneration diseases affect the networks.Patients with these diseases showed poor performance in temporal tasks.Within a certain age range,older people could maintain relatively good temporal cognitive function as younger adults through cognitive compensation strategies.Future studies would explore how to slow down aging process by cognitive training as well as brain stimulation techniques.