The effects of aging and disease duration on cognition in multiple sclerosis

Multimodal emotion perception in young and elderly patients with multiple sclerosis

“…A previous study from our group demonstrated an interaction between the presence of MS and age on executive functions, information processing speed and working memory (but not episodic memory). This signifies that the decline in these functions observed in MS is accentuated by advancing age (Tremblay et al, 2020). Other studies have only found such an interaction for motor abilities (Roy et al, 2017) and not for cognitive functions (Leclercq et al, 2014;Roy et al, 2017).…”

“…All participants were involved in a larger study assessing the effect of aging in MS cognitive functioning and agreed to be contacted to participate in other research projects (see (Tremblay et al, 2020) for a detailed description of the selection procedure). The project was approved by the CHUM ethics committee.…”

Cognitive Decline in Older People with Multiple Sclerosis—A Narrative Review of the Literature

“…Although this is unlikely to have substantially impacted the results, it would be important to replicate these results using identical batteries in both groups. Another study [ 16 ] included 84 PwMS (30 young AOMS, 30 older AOMS, and 24 older LOMS) and 50 HC subjects (25 young, 25 older). By comparing young versus older subgroups across AOMS and HCs, the authors found an interaction effect between age and MS on attention, executive function, and processing speed performance, while such an interaction was not found in episodic memory measures.…”

“…By comparing young versus older subgroups across AOMS and HCs, the authors found an interaction effect between age and MS on attention, executive function, and processing speed performance, while such an interaction was not found in episodic memory measures. Tremblay et al also found that longer disease duration resulted in more impaired processing speed and working memory [ 16 ]. Notably, this study was among the first to include psychosocial variables such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, and medical comorbidities that could confound the effects of MS on age.…”

“…are more prevalent in MS compared to the general population, and the prevalence increases with age [ 30 , 32 ]. Very few studies on cognitive performance in older PwMS have accounted for these comorbidities thus far [ 15 , 16 ], so future research will need to consider the potential impact of these MS-related and age-related comorbidities on cognitive aging in MS.…”