Table 1.

Proposal for a possible comprehensive standard on mental aging studies with focus on non-biological (A) and involved disciplines (B).

A Focus on functional mental aging

Perception: Vision, audition, somatosensory perception, olfactory and gustatory perception

Cognition: Attention (alertness, cognitive speed, sustained attention; focused and divided attention; spatial attention)

Memory (episodic, semantic and procedural memory; short-term, working and ling-term memory; prospective memory)

Executive functions (planning, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, adaptation of routines to changing task requirements)

Language/Speech: Language comprehension and expression; reading (incl. reading habits) and writing

Motivation: Engagement in daily and social activities

Emotion: Emotion recognition (social perception); expression of emotions

Mood: Symptoms of depression and anxiety

Subjective cognitive complaints

Instrumental activities of daily living: ideally performance-based measures plus an informant rating

Social networks

Sleep

Life quality

Physical activity

Aging perceptions

Biological variables: Health status (e.g., blood pressure, blood glucose status, hormonal status, alcohol consumption, smoking, drug abuse), current medications, BMI, medical history, neuroimaging, genetics (APOE status)

Demographic variables: Age, sex/gender, family status, level of education, regular earlier occupation, current occupation, living arrangement, ethnicity.

B Disciplines involved in the study of mental aging

Psychiatry

Neurology

(Neuro-) Psychology

Occupational therapy

Neuroimaging

Neuroendocrinology

Internal Medicine

Genetics