A recent study has found that there is strong evidence that older adults are able to perform demanding cognitive tasks better in the morning, and are less likely to be distracted.
In the study, 16 younger adults (aged 19-30) and 16 older adults (aged 60-82) participated in a series of memory tests during the afternoon from 1 - 5 p.m. The tests involved studying and recalling a series of picture and word combinations flashed on a computer screen. Irrelevant words linked to certain pictures and irrelevant pictures linked to certain words also flashed on the screen as a distraction. During the testing, participants' brains were scanned with fMRI which allows researchers to detect with great precision which areas of the brain are activated. Older adults were 10 percent more likely to pay attention to the distracting information than younger adults who were able to successfully focus and block this information. The fMRI data confirmed that older adults showed substantially less engagement of the attentional control areas of the brain compared to younger adults. Indeed, older adults tested in the afternoon were "idling" - showing activations in the default mode (a set of regions that come online primarily when a person is resting or thinking about nothing in particular) indicating that perhaps they were having great difficulty focusing. When a person is fully engaged with focusing, resting state activations are suppressed.
When 18 older adults were morning tested (8:30 a.m. — 10:30 a.m.) they performed noticeably better, according to two separate behavioural measures of inhibitory control. They attended to fewer distracting items than their peers tested at off-peak times of day, closing the age difference gap in performance with younger adults. Importantly, older adults tested in the morning activated the same brain areas young adults did to successfully ignore the distracting information. This suggests that when older adults are tested is important for both how they perform and what brain activity one should expert to see.
Abstract can be found here.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @08:14AM
Younger adults have morning AND afternoon brains.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Friday August 08 2014, @08:33AM
I wouldn't be so sure. Younger people are sometimes practically non-functional in the morning.
That would be a natural follow-up. Test the younger adults in the morning and see how they do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @09:27AM
And sit on both of them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @12:07PM
Don't forget the wood!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @03:04PM
Weed? :D
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 08 2014, @03:42PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday August 08 2014, @11:03AM
I think I'd flunk "studying and recalling picture and word combinations" at any time of day.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 1) by boris on Friday August 08 2014, @11:32AM
Could it be that older adults have more things to handle throughout the day? Could it be that younger adults tend to have later hours anyway
(Score: 1) by be4verch33se on Friday August 08 2014, @02:15PM
I think if a 19 year old kid has to be somewhere at 1pm to do a test, he's probably waking up around 11. It still is morning to him.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday August 08 2014, @12:16PM
I first heard about this in high school twenty years ago.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday August 08 2014, @03:08PM
I remember hearing that older people need less sleep in general. Which leads to them waking up ealier than younger people.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @12:25PM
For me anyway. Then it's lunch nap and back home again
(Score: 3, Funny) by present_arms on Friday August 08 2014, @02:33PM
My age means i'm in the middle (Nearly 48) and my brain doesn't work day or night, damn it.
http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @03:46PM
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Friday August 08 2014, @04:41PM
with Alzheimers?
People with Alzheimers often have episodes called "Sundowning" in the late afternoon, where the symptoms get worse. Is it plausible that sundowning is an extension of this, only more pronounced due to Alzheimers?
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday August 08 2014, @04:48PM
This must be why schools are predominately set to an early schedule to mess with kids and prove to them that they are worthless. Actually it's just inefficient and counter productive. Start late, end late. It's the bio-rythm of many young people.
(Score: 1) by Chillgamesh on Friday August 08 2014, @08:06PM
but what about the teachers who are always older (sometimes much older) than the students.
is it more important that the school staff be able to function at 100% or the students?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday August 08 2014, @09:05PM
Encoding new information (learning) requires more neural demands than repeating what has already been learned. And school is a service to students, not teachers.