Age-related decline in cognitive flexibility in female chimpanzees

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Anges Lacreuse, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Lisa Parr, Emory University; Lakshmi Chennareddi, Emory University; James Herndon Jr., Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-12-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 Elsevier Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.08.018
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Neurobiology of Aging
• Volume: 72
• Start Page: 83
• End Page: 88
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was funded by the National Center for Research Resources P51RR000165, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs P51OD011132, and NIA P01AG02642.
• Keywords: Animals; Psychomotor Performance; Cognitive Dysfunction; Female; Pan troglodytes; Cognition; Executive Function; Prefrontal Cortex; Ape; Aging; Cognitive flexibility; Prefrontal cortex; Cognitive Aging
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Cognitive; Gerontology; Health Sciences, Mental Health

Abstract

Data on cognitive aging in chimpanzees are extremely sparse, yet can provide an invaluable phylogenetic perspective, especially because Alzheimer disease (AD)–like neuropathology has recently been described in the oldest chimpanzee brains. This finding underscores the importance of data on cognitive aging in this fellow hominin, our closest biological relative. We tested 30 female chimpanzees, 12–56 years old, on a computerized analog of the Wisconsin Card Sort test. This test assesses cognitive flexibility, which is severely impaired in normal aging and AD. Subjects selected stimuli according to color or shape; the rewarded dimension (i.e., color or shape) switched without warning and the chimpanzee had to adapt her responses accordingly. We found that increasing age was associated with an increased number of perseverative errors and an increased number of trials to reach criterion in each switching dimension. The number of aborted trials was similar across age groups. These data show that similar to humans, chimpanzees show a clear age-related decline in cognitive flexibility that is already observed at middle age.