0000000000133678
AUTHOR
Sanna Takkinen
Life-lines of Finnish people aged 83-87.
This article presents the characteristics of the life-lines drawn by older Finnish men and women. The study was part of the Evergreen Project, Finland. Seventy-eight persons aged 83–87 participated in an interview, in which they were asked to draw a life-line. The life-line was drawn on a standardized sheet as a continuous line which showed the intensity of positive and negative affects during the course of life. An interview concerning the major life events on the life-line and the most positive and negative life periods was administered after the life-line was drawn. The shape of the life-line was analyzed by calculating the level, trend, and variance, as well as the maximum and minimum …
Maturational effects on newborn ERPs measured in the mismatch negativity paradigm.
Abstract The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials (ERPs), a measure of passive change detection, is suggested to develop early in comparison to other ERP components, and an MMN-like response has been measured even from preterm infants. The MMN response in adults is negative in polarity at about 150–200 ms. However, the response measured in a typical MMN paradigm can also be markedly different in newborns, even opposite in polarity. This has been suggested to be related to maturational factors. To verify that suggestion, we measured ERPs of 21 newborns during quiet sleep to rarely occurring deviant tones of 1100 Hz (probability 12%) embedded among repeated standard…
Meaning in Life as an Important Component of Functioning in Old Age
The purpose was to locate different measures of meaning in life in a multidimensional space of functioning in old age. Fifty-five persons born in 1910 and 1914 participated in laboratory tests, a medical examination, and interviews over a three-year period from 1994 to 1997. Measures of meaning in life included a sense of meaning in life, a sense of coherence, and four indices derived from a life-line drawing (linearity, trend, mean level in the past, and mean level in the future). The other measures of functioning were the number of chronic diseases, functional disability, walking speed, self-rated health, cognitive capacity, provision of social relationships, loneliness, depressive mood,…
Meaning in Life in Three Samples of Elderly Persons with High Cognitive Functioning
The study examined the relationships between meaning in life and cognitive functioning in three elderly samples. The participants in Sample I were 78 persons aged 82–87, in Sample II 182 persons aged 83–92, and in Sample III 299 persons aged 65—69. The samples took part in interviews and cognitive tests in 1996–1997. Several interview questions together with the Sense of Coherence questionnaire were used to study the degree and content of meaning in life. Cognitive functioning was measured by Digit Span, Digit Symbol, and Word Fluency in Sample I and Mini-D in Samples II and III. Each sample was divided into the group of persons with high cognitive functioning (including those whose result…