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19 - Effects of Environmental Enrichment and Training across Life Span in Cognition

from Part II - Psychosocial Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

By
María Dolores Calero
Edited by
Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros ,
Athanase Benetos  and
Jean-Marie Robine
Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Athanase Benetos
Affiliation:
Université de Lorraine and Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) Nancy
Jean-Marie Robine
Affiliation:
INSERM
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Summary

In the last 40 years there has been a significant change in the vision of aging: it is now understood and accepted that the elderly are the managers of their own physical and mental health, although some require the help of social and health agents to maintain their autonomy. The environment, fundamentally the social environment, is considered an important variable in the promotion of active aging, since it influences the cognitive maintenance of the elderly in very different ways. This chapter reviews the influence of environmental enrichment defined as those physical, sensory, affective and / or cognitive experiences that develop throughout life and contribute to optimize the physical, cognitive and / or emotional repertoires of a person, in the aging. It is revised the theoretical and methodological bases (lifespan theory, theory of disuse and cognitive plasticity construct) that support this line of research and the results of research carried out on lifelong environmental enrichment and environmental enrichment in old age. Regarding the first line: LIFELONG ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT. Epidemiological and longitudinal studies seem to show that maintaining an active lifestyle in old age - physical, mental and social - can protect against cognitive impairment. The educational level has an important role in protecting against age-related cognitive impairment, not only as a direct effect, but also because it can encourage greater cognitive activity in different areas of life. The effects of education are reinforced by all kinds of activities, including cultural and physical activities, which seem to play an important part in the cognitive maintenance of older people. Regarding the second line: ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT IN OLD AGE. The chapter reviews cognitive plasticity research and studies on cognitive training in old age, which generally show that the effects of cognitive training can improve the performance of the elderly in the trained areas with moderate effects, and that are detected by psychological tests or measures of objective skills, although they present some limitations that must be reviewed. Finally it is proposed a scheme that considers all the variables that can intervene in the transfer of training that could be considered to evaluate the effects of an intervention. This is posed to solve the need to verify the individual effect of each one to reach the proposed objective and, following a scheme of interventions based on the evidence, to design a formation that foments the environmental enrichment and is adjusted to the objective pursued and the characteristics of the elderly.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Successful Aging , pp. 321 - 354
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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