Older adults' brains perform better during daytime

A new study has shown that older adults perform better on demanding mental tasks at daytime which also turn on the same brain networks responsible for paying attention and suppressing distraction as younger adults.

The study conducted by Canadian researchers demonstrated that there were evident differences in brain function across the day for older adults.

Lead author John Anderson, a PhD candidate with the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences and University of Toronto, Department of Psychology asserted that the time of day really did matter when testing older adults and this age group was more focused and better able to ignore distraction in the morning than in the afternoon.

Dr. Lynn Hasher, senior author on the paper and a leading authority in attention and inhibitory functioning in younger and older adults said that their research was steady with previous science reports showing that at a time of day that matches circadian arousal patterns, older adults were able to resist distraction.

The study is published in the journal Psychology and Aging.