INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 11 Program Schedule 02/17/2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology \| Education/Training \| Professional Practice Issues Final Abstract #33 Aging Effects on the MINT Sprint in Spanish-English Bilinguals Tamar Gollan, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States Dalia Garcia, SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communication Disorders, San Diego, United States Alena Stasenko, UCSD, La Jolla, United States Jocelyn Vargas, UCSD, La Jolla, United States Brandon Pulido, UCSD, La Jolla, United States David Salmon, UCSD, La Jolla, United States Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience Keyword 1: dementia - Alzheimer's disease Keyword 2: bilingualism/multilingualism Keyword 3: aging (normal) Objective: A recent study revealed that older monolinguals with pre-clinical AD (i.e., with positive CSF biomarkers) produced fewer Total Correct responses on the MINT Sprint relative to true controls (with negative CSF biomarkers). In this test, participants verbally sprint through a grid of 80 pictures naming as many as they can as quickly as they can. In addition to higher naming scores, true controls resolved more initially failed items. These percent resolved (PR) scores were independently sensitive to AD, and also increased with age in true controls (but not in preclinical AD, and MCI/AD groups). High PR scores may reflect increased vocabulary knowledge and enriched semantic representations associated with increased years of experience in healthy aging. The present study investigated aging effects in Spanish-English bilinguals to shed additional light on the cognitive mechanisms underlying PR scores in MINT Sprint performance. Participants and Methods: Twenty-five older (age 60-95) and 80 younger (age 17-36) Spanish-English bilinguals completed the MINT-Sprint in both languages. Total scores were calculated by summing the number of pictures named on the first attempt and the number of initially failed items that were correctly retrieved when given just a few seconds to try again on a second attempt at retrieving initially failed items. PR scores were calculated as the number of resolved items on the second attempt divided by the number of failed items on the first attempt. Total naming and PR scores were examined using 2x2 ANOVAs with language (dominant, nondominant) as a repeated measures factor, and participant type (older, younger) as a between subjects factor. Results: Bilinguals named more pictures in their dominant than their nondominant language [F(1,103)=177.89, η_p²=.63, p<.001], older bilinguals named more pictures than younger bilinguals, [F(1,103)=24.86, η_p²=.19, p<.001], and the aging advantage in naming was equivalent in size in both languages, [F<1]. Bilinguals had higher PR scores in their dominant than in their nondominant language, [F(1,103)=131.52, η_p²=.29, p<.001], older bilinguals had higher PR scores than younger bilinguals, [F(1,103)=50.34, η_p²=.33, p<.001], and the aging related advantage in PR scores was especially large in the dominant language, [F(1,103)=41.61, η_p²=.29, p<.001]. Additionally, within young bilinguals PR scores in the dominant language increased significantly with age (r=.348, p<.01), but not in the nondominant language (p=.14), and not in older bilinguals (p≥.34), whose PR scores were more than twice as high on average in the dominant language (M=53.3%, SD=19.4) relative to young bilinguals (M=24.7%, SD=15.0). Conclusions: Multiple sub-measures of the MINT Sprint are sensitive to language dominance and aging effects. The increased ability to name pictures in older than in younger bilinguals likely reflects the increased years of exposure to and use of both languages. Additional research is needed to understand why aging effects on PR scores were larger in the dominant language, but overall these results better fit an “older is wiser” interpretation of cognitive aging in line with the literature on vocabulary knowledge and inconsistent with suggestions that aging decreases the ability to retrieve object names.

Poster

02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues

Final Abstract #33

Aging Effects on the MINT Sprint in Spanish-English Bilinguals

Tamar Gollan, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Dalia Garcia, SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communication Disorders, San Diego, United States
Alena Stasenko, UCSD, La Jolla, United States
Jocelyn Vargas, UCSD, La Jolla, United States
Brandon Pulido, UCSD, La Jolla, United States
David Salmon, UCSD, La Jolla, United States

Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience

Keyword 1: dementia - Alzheimer's disease
Keyword 2: bilingualism/multilingualism
Keyword 3: aging (normal)

Objective:

A recent study revealed that older monolinguals with pre-clinical AD (i.e., with positive CSF biomarkers) produced fewer Total Correct responses on the MINT Sprint relative to true controls (with negative CSF biomarkers). In this test, participants verbally sprint through a grid of 80 pictures naming as many as they can as quickly as they can. In addition to higher naming scores, true controls resolved more initially failed items. These percent resolved (PR) scores were independently sensitive to AD, and also increased with age in true controls (but not in preclinical AD, and MCI/AD groups). High PR scores may reflect increased vocabulary knowledge and enriched semantic representations associated with increased years of experience in healthy aging. The present study investigated aging effects in Spanish-English bilinguals to shed additional light on the cognitive mechanisms underlying PR scores in MINT Sprint performance.

Participants and Methods:

Twenty-five older (age 60-95) and 80 younger (age 17-36) Spanish-English bilinguals completed the MINT-Sprint in both languages. Total scores were calculated by summing the number of pictures named on the first attempt and the number of initially failed items that were correctly retrieved when given just a few seconds to try again on a second attempt at retrieving initially failed items. PR scores were calculated as the number of resolved items on the second attempt divided by the number of failed items on the first attempt. Total naming and PR scores were examined using 2x2 ANOVAs with language (dominant, nondominant) as a repeated measures factor, and participant type (older, younger) as a between subjects factor.

Results:

Bilinguals named more pictures in their dominant than their nondominant language [F(1,103)=177.89, η_p²=.63, p<.001], older bilinguals named more pictures than younger bilinguals, [F(1,103)=24.86, η_p²=.19, p<.001], and the aging advantage in naming was equivalent in size in both languages, [F<1]. Bilinguals had higher PR scores in their dominant than in their nondominant language, [F(1,103)=131.52, η_p²=.29, p<.001], older bilinguals had higher PR scores than younger bilinguals, [F(1,103)=50.34, η_p²=.33, p<.001], and the aging related advantage in PR scores was especially large in the dominant language, [F(1,103)=41.61, η_p²=.29, p<.001]. Additionally, within young bilinguals PR scores in the dominant language increased significantly with age (r=.348, p<.01), but not in the nondominant language (p=.14), and not in older bilinguals (p≥.34), whose PR scores were more than twice as high on average in the dominant language (M=53.3%, SD=19.4) relative to young bilinguals (M=24.7%, SD=15.0).

Conclusions:

Multiple sub-measures of the MINT Sprint are sensitive to language dominance and aging effects. The increased ability to name pictures in older than in younger bilinguals likely reflects the increased years of exposure to and use of both languages. Additional research is needed to understand why aging effects on PR scores were larger in the dominant language, but overall these results better fit an “older is wiser” interpretation of cognitive aging in line with the literature on vocabulary knowledge and inconsistent with suggestions that aging decreases the ability to retrieve object names.