Adult-Life Occupational Exposures: Enriched Environment or a Stressor for the Aging Brain?

Burzyńska, Agnieszka; Jiao, Yuqin; Ganster, Daniel C.

doi:10.1093/workar/way007

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 187 publications

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“…These studies do not empirically consider work design (hence their invisibility in Figure 3), but they are relevant because they link stimuli in the environment with cognition-related brain structure and function. For example, some neurologically-oriented studies focus on environmental conditions that lead to changes to neural circuits, called neuroplasticity, which in turn affects cognitive functioning (Keller & Just, 2016) and may lead to longer term cognitive outcomes (Burzynska, Jiao, & Ganster, 2018). A classic study in this line of research by Rosenzweig, Krech, Bennett, and Diamond (1962) demonstrated that enriching the environment in rat cages changed their brain chemistry and brain weight.…”

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confidence: 99%

Can High-Quality Jobs Help Workers Learn New Tricks? A Multidisciplinary Review of Work Design for Cognition

Parker

Ward

Fisher

2021

ANNALS

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Understanding whether and how work design affects human cognition is important because: (1) cognition is necessary for job performance, (2) digital technologies increase the need for cognition, and (3) it is vital to maintain cognitive functioning in the mature workforce. We synthesize research from work design, human factors, learning, occupational health, and lifespan perspectives. Defining cognition in terms of both knowledge and cognitive processes/fluid abilities, we show that five types of work characteristics (job complexity, job autonomy, relational work design, job feedback, and psychosocial demands) affect employees' cognition via multiple pathways. In the short-tomedium term, we identify three cognitively-enriching pathways (opportunity for use of cognition, accelerated knowledge acquisition, motivated exploratory learning) and two cognitively-harmful pathways (strain-impaired cognition, depleted cognitive capacity). We also identify three longerterm pathways: cognitive preservation, accumulated knowledge, and ill-health impairment). Based on the emerging evidence for the role of work design in promoting cognition, we propose an integrative model suggesting that short-to-medium term processes between work design and cognition accumulate to affect longer-term cognitive outcomes, such as the prevention of cognitive decline as one ages. We also identify further directions for research and methodological improvements.

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confidence: 99%

Can High-Quality Jobs Help Workers Learn New Tricks? A Multidisciplinary Review of Work Design for Cognition

Parker

Ward

Fisher

2021

ANNALS

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“…To better understand the neural underpinnings of the above associations, we recently proposed the "Brain Aging: Occupational Stimulation and Stress" (BOSS) model (Burzynska et al, 2019). The BOSS model acknowledges the possibly opposing influences of occupational complexity and stress on cognitive aging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, it posits that occupational enrichment may protect against age-related cognitive decline, either by supporting cognitive reserve [i.e., providing mind's resistance to biological brain aging (Stern et al, 2018)] or by supporting brain maintenance [i.e., minimizing age-related neural losses (Nyberg, 2017)]. Conversely, occupational stress may deplete the brain reserve and accelerate age-related changes through a variety of neural and systemic processes (Burzynska et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, research on both humans and animals shows that enriched environments promote hippocampal neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, and neurotrophic support (Bettio et al, 2017). Alternatively, psychological and physical stress inhibits hippocampal neurogenesis, neurotrophic support, and can induce neurotoxicity via upregulation of glucocorticoid cascade, inflammation, or oxidative stress (Nagata et al, 2009;Choi et al, 2014;Bettio et al, 2017;Burzynska et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Occupational Physical Stress Is Negatively Associated With Hippocampal Volume and Memory in Older Adults

Burzyńska

Ganster

Fanning

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Our jobs can provide intellectually and socially enriched environments but also be the source of major psychological and physical stressors. As the average full-time worker spends >8 h at work per weekday and remains in the workforce for about 40 years, occupational experiences must be important factors in cognitive and brain aging. Therefore, we studied whether occupational complexity and stress are associated with hippocampal volume and cognitive ability in 99 cognitively normal older adults. We estimated occupational complexity, physical stress, and psychological stress using the Work Design Questionnaire (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006), Quantitative Workload Inventory and Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale (Spector and Jex, 1998). We found that physical stress, comprising physical demands and work conditions, was associated with smaller hippocampal volume and poorer memory performance. These associations were independent of age, gender, brain size, socioeconomic factors (education, income, and job title), duration of the job, employment status, leisure physical activity and general stress. This suggests that physical demands at work and leisure physical activity may have largely independent and opposite effects on brain and cognitive health. Our findings highlight the importance of considering midlife occupational experiences, such as work physical stress, in understanding individual trajectories of cognitive and brain aging.

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“…Tools that can convert occupations into quantified dimensions of mental traits and skills-as well as contextual factors (e.g., sex/gender and economic access)-are required to test hypotheses regarding characteristics of individuals whose occupation is known. For instance, cognitive neuropsychologists can relate cognitive profiles associated with occupations to brain measures, while geriatricians may be interested in identifying specific physical traits of occupations that could predict healthy ageing (e.g., Burzynska et al, 2019;Spreng et al, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Visualization of Latent Components Assessed in O*Net Occupations (VOLCANO): A robust method for standardized conversion of occupational labels to scale ratio format

Sokolowski²,

Rao³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Occupations are typically characterized in nominal form, a format that limits options for hypothesis testing and data analysis. We drew upon ratings of knowledge, skills, and abilities for 966 occupations listed in the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Classification Network (O*NET) database to create an accessible, standardized multidimensional space in which occupations can be quantitatively localized and compared. Principal components analysis revealed that the occupation space comprises three main dimensions that correspond to: 1) the required amount of education and training, 2) the degree to which an occupation falls within a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline versus social sciences and humanities, and 3) whether occupations are more mathematical or health-related. Data-driven groupings of related occupations were obtained with hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). We provide a freely accessible tool: Visualization of Latent Components Assessed in o*Net Occupations (VOLCANO), a shiny app for users to extract quantitative scores along the relevant dimensions, bringing much-needed standardization to unwieldy occupational data. Moreover, VOLCANO can also be to create new occupational spaces customized to specific research domains.

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Adult-Life Occupational Exposures: Enriched Environment or a Stressor for the Aging Brain?

Cited by 13 publications

References 187 publications

Can High-Quality Jobs Help Workers Learn New Tricks? A Multidisciplinary Review of Work Design for Cognition

Can High-Quality Jobs Help Workers Learn New Tricks? A Multidisciplinary Review of Work Design for Cognition

Occupational Physical Stress Is Negatively Associated With Hippocampal Volume and Memory in Older Adults

Visualization of Latent Components Assessed in O*Net Occupations (VOLCANO): A robust method for standardized conversion of occupational labels to scale ratio format

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