HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Allain, P. Articles by Gall, D. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Allain, P. Articles by Gall, D. L.

Executive Functions in Normal Aging: An Examination of Script Sequencing, Script Sorting, and Script Monitoring

¹ Laboratory of Psychology, University of Angers, France.
² Clinical and Research Center for Memory Disorders and Degenerative Diseases, ³ Department of Neurology, and ⁴ Unit of Clinical Gerontology, University Hospital of Angers, France.

Address correspondence to Philippe Allain, Unité de Neuropsychologie, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, 4 rue Larrey, 49033 Angers Cedex 01, France. E-mail: PhAllain{at}chu-angers.fr

We explored the effect of age on executive functions by using script-sequencing and script-sorting tasks. Older participants (n = 39), relative to young subjects (n = 40), committed more errors in script sequencing. However, there was no difference in performance between elderly and young subjects in excluding irrelevant items. These results suggest that aging generates impairment in the ability to produce temporally coherent sequences without deficit in the ability to eliminate distractors in the action domain. We proposed that the sequencing difficulties in elderly participants could be due to working-memory and shifting deficits mediated by changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.