HIV/AIDS AND AGING--ATTENTION, WORKLOAD, AND MULTI TASKS

这项试验性研究计划提案回应了列出的主题领域(艾滋病毒/艾滋病和老龄化)和NIA计划公告99-049。申请者的广泛和长期目标包括阐明艾滋病毒/艾滋病和老龄化对认知功能的综合影响。在过去的几年里，50岁以上成年人中的艾滋病人数增加了两倍多，目前的估计表明，患有MDS的成年人中有10%超过50岁，3%超过60岁。然而，大多数关于艾滋病毒/艾滋病的神经心理学研究都集中在年轻人身上。此外，尽管与艾滋病相关的痴呆症似乎在老年人中更为普遍，但很少有研究关注艾滋病毒+老年人的特定认知处理能力。本提案的具体目标包括审查年轻和老年艾滋病毒感染者和艾滋病毒感染者的信息处理(视觉选择性注意)、工作量和多任务表现(单任务、双任务和多任务条件)。性能将在台式计算机上使用SuperLab软件(由NIH开发)和多属性任务电池(由NASA兰利开发)进行评估。工作量将使用NASA TLX进行衡量，该TLX由几个主观评分表组成。先前的研究结果表明，在HW+以上的老年人中，精神运动速度和注意力能力受到不同程度的干扰，尤其是那些患有艾滋病的人。工作量是一个有用的人为因素概念，可以区分受试者状态/努力和受试者表现。因为许多HIV+的成年人表现出正常的行为(比如开车)，所以对多任务表现进行评估，以确定在更现实的表现情况下的缺陷。中心假设是，认知缺陷将在艾滋病毒+的老年人中最大，特别是在MDS病例中。随着任务难度和任务复杂程度的增加，预计老年HIV+成年人的差异缺陷也会增加。选择性注意的某些方面的缺陷(如视觉搜索，但可能不是过滤)被提出用来预测多任务性能的下降。与艾滋病毒相关的主观工作量差异将与与艾滋病毒相关的绩效差异进行比较。

This pilot research program proposal responds to a listed topic area (HIV/AIDS and aging) und& NIA Program Announcement 99-049. The applicant's broad, long-term objectives include the elucidation of the combined effects of HIV/AIDS and aging on cognitive functioning. AIDS in adults over the age of 50 years has more than tripled over the last several years and current estimates suggest that 10% of adults with MDS are over 50 years old and 3% are over 60 years old. However, most neuropsychological studies of HIV/AIDS have focused on younger adults. In addition, although an AIDS-related dementia appears to be more prevalent in older adults, little research has focused on specific cognitive processing abilities in older HIV+ adults. Specific aims of the present proposal include the examination of information processing (visual selective attention), workload, and multi- task performance (single, dual, and multi-task task conditions) in younger and older HIV- and HIV+ adults. Performance will be assessed on a desktop computer using SuperLab software (developed at NIH) and the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (developed at NASA Langley). Workload will be measured with the NASA TLX, comprising of several subjective rating scales. Previous results suggest that psychomotor speed and attention ability are differentially disrupted in older HW+ adults, especially in those with AIDS. Workload is a useful human factors concept that can differentiate subject state/effort and subject performance. Because many HIV+ adults perform normal behaviors,(such as driving a car), multi-task performance is assessed to determine deficiencies in more realistic performance situations. The central hypothesis is that cognitive deficits will be largest in older HIV+ adults, especially in MDS cases. Differential deficits in older HIV+ adults are also predicted to increase with task difficulty and task complexity. Deficits in certain aspects of selective attention (such as visual search but, perhaps not filtering) are proposed to predict declining multi- task performance. And HIV-related differences in subjective workload will be compared to HIV-related differences in performance.