Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the cognitive state of highly selected Polish centenarians and analyze the mechanisms of their functioning.
Methods: The selected centenarian group (10 persons) and a reference group (20 persons) who started aging (65 years) were examined with a sensitive set of neuropsychological tests and tasks in clinical-experimental assessment.
Results: As expected, the centenarians' cognitive functions were different from those of the subjects who started aging, however, not in all aspects. For instance, the former scored significantly lower in the area of linguistic functions but the ability to plan and controlled perform complex visuospatial task with use of simultaneous and sequential strategies was preserved despite unfavorable symptoms of natural aging such as permanence attention as well as prolonged action time.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the studied centenarians show a dominant right-hemispheric pattern functioning not only in relation to perception, but also to planning and executing complex activities. The study and description of preserved neurocognition of centenarians was possible due to introducing a special procedure sensitive to the preserved functions.
Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.