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Task switching in older adults with and without insomnia.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Task-switching deficits are common in older adults and in those with insomnia. Such deficits may be driven by difficulties with sleep continuity and dampened homeostatic sleep drive. OBJECTIVE:To identify the aspects of task switching affected by insomnia and its treatment, and to determine whether such effects are associated with sleep continuity and homeostatic sleep drive. METHODS:Polysomnographic sleep and task switching were tested in healthy older adults aged 60-93 years with insomnia (n = 48) and normal sleeping controls (n = 51). Assessments were repeated in the insomnia group after eight weeks of cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia. Sleep measures included wake after sleep onset (WASO) and quantitative indices of homeostatic sleep drive (delta power during nonrapid eye movement [NREM] sleep and the ratio of delta power during the first and second NREM periods). A cued task-switching paradigm instructed participants to perform one of two tasks with varying preparatory cue-target intervals, manipulating task alternation, task repetition, and task preparation. RESULTS:The effect of preparatory cues on accuracy was diminished in the insomnia group compared with that in controls. Across the two groups, a stronger effect of preparatory cues was associated with a higher delta sleep ratio. Following insomnia treatment, task-repetition accuracy significantly improved. This improvement was associated with improvements in WASO. There were no group or treatment effects on response time or task alternation accuracy. CONCLUSIONS:Effects of insomnia diagnosis and treatment apply to conditions that depend on the maintenance of a task set, rather than a domain general effect across task switching. Such effects are associated with homeostatic sleep drive and sleep continuity.

SUBMITTER: Wilckens KA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5321623 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Task switching in older adults with and without insomnia.

Wilckens Kristine A KA Hall Martica H MH Erickson Kirk I KI Germain Anne A Nimgaonkar Vishwajit L VL Monk Timothy H TH Buysse Daniel J DJ

Sleep medicine 20161021

<h4>Background</h4>Task-switching deficits are common in older adults and in those with insomnia. Such deficits may be driven by difficulties with sleep continuity and dampened homeostatic sleep drive.<h4>Objective</h4>To identify the aspects of task switching affected by insomnia and its treatment, and to determine whether such effects are associated with sleep continuity and homeostatic sleep drive.<h4>Methods</h4>Polysomnographic sleep and task switching were tested in healthy older adults ag ...[more]

PMID: 28215233

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Project description:ObjectiveAgeing is often accompanied by increases in pain, which may threaten physical health. Successfully managing increased pain requires the ability to switch attention away from the pain and towards adaptive health cognitions and behaviours. However, no study to date has tested how pain interacts with task-switching ability to predict future health in older adults. Additionally, no study has tested whether objective (i.e., task-switching performance) or subjective measures of cognitive ability have a stronger impact on future health.Design/methodsThe current study tested these interactions in community-dwelling older adults. Participants included 150 older adults who provided pain, task-switching ability, subjective cognitive functioning, and health data every 6 months for up to 5 years.ResultsMultilevel modelling was used to analyse the data, yielding gammas (γ) analogous to unstandardized beta weights in regression. A significant interaction between task-switching and pain indicated that when task-switching ability was lower than usual, higher-than-usual pain predicted poorer health at the following wave (γ = 0.30, SE = 0.12, t(663) = 2.45, p = .009; 95% CI: 0.07-0.65). When task-switching ability was higher than usual, there was no effect of pain on health (γ = -0.13, t(663) = -0.85, p = .39; 95% CI: -0.44-0.17). No significant interaction was found for subjective cognitive functioning.ConclusionsObjective task-switching ability, but not subjective cognitive functioning, may have health-protective effects when older adults experience increases in pain.Statement of contributionWhat is already known on the subject? As people age, they are more likely to experience pain. Increases in pain threaten health. Older adults are at particular risk for both increased pain and poor health. What does this study add? When pain levels are higher than usual, task-switching ability protects older adults from future declines in health. Within people, task-switching ability interacts with pain to promote healthy ageing.

Dataset Information

Task switching in older adults with and without insomnia.

Publications

Task switching in older adults with and without insomnia.

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