Relationship between reaction time variability on go/no go tasks and neuropsychological functioning in younger and older adults

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Early detection of cognitive impairment in older adults is important for the prevention of dementia. Intra-individual variability in reaction time (IIV-RT) during go/no-go tasks can be used for the early detection of cognitive impairment in older adults living in the community. This study aimed to determine the relationship between IIV-RT and cognitive function during go/no-go tasks and the cutoff values for determining the risk of cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

This study included 31 older adults without cognitive impairment, 15 community-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment, and 34 healthy young adults. All participants performed a go/no-go task to assess the IIV-RT. Additionally, older adults underwent neuropsychological testing. Based on the results of the Japanese version of the Montreal Test of Cognitive Abilities (MoCA-J), older adults were divided into those with normal cognition and those with cognitive impairment.

Results

There were significant differences in the IIV-RT among groups, including a higher IIV in the cognitively impaired group than in young adults and cognitively normal older adults. Moreover, the IIV-RT was correlated with the MoCA-J (r =  −0.531, p < 0.001), Trail Making Test Part A (r = 0.571, p < 0.001), and Verbal Fluency Test scores (r =  −0.442, p = 0.002). Receiver operating curve analysis showed that the area under the curve for IIV-RT was 0.935, and the cutoff value at which the IIV-RT identified cognitive impairment was 25.37%.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that the IIV-RT during go/no-go tasks is a useful early indicator of cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive impairment
• cognitive function
• intra-individual variability
• reaction time
• older adults

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all those who participated in the measurement of the study data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data, analytical methods, and study materials may be made available to other researchers. Interested researchers contacted the corresponding author. These data were not available to the public to protect the privacy of the study participants.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI [grant no. JP20K20268].