The state of information receiving, processing and storage functions of young, adult and mature people

Neuropsychology of standard studies the brain organization of mental processes with various contingents of healthy individuals; the methodological basis of this trend is considered to be the representations of higher mental functions system localization. Higher mental functions are formed during ontogenesis, they do not maintain a unified structure at successive stages of their development, but perform the same task using different logically successive communication systems. The purpose of our study is a comparative analysis of the functions state of receiving, processing and storage of information at young, adult and mature ages using the neuropsychological approach. The functions of receiving, processing and storage of information consistent with the theory of A.R. Luria of 3 functional blocks of the brain are connected with the 2 block of the brain. The study involved three groups of 30 people according to the periodization of V.V. Bunak: young age (17-20); adult age (25-35); mature age (40-50). The methods of neuropsychological diagnosis were used as developed by A.R. Luria and equipped with quantitative assessment by T.V. Ahutina and co-authors. The results of the study showed that the functions of the 2block of the brain are exposed to the changes at young, adult and mature ages. From the age of 25 to 35 visual gnosis (adults are more productive in recognition of crossed, incomplete, overlay images, they made fewer mistakes) and oral-aural functions (involuntary and delayed reproduction reaches optimum) reach the optimal state. At mature age the functions of the 2 block of the brain are significantly lower for all components. The subjects of mature age experience difficulties in processing kinaesthetic information (the indicators of oral and kinaesthetic praxis are lower), visual information (productivity in all categories is reduced, the frequency of various kinds of errors increases), oral-aural information (involuntary remembering is worse, susceptibility to interference is higher, which prevents from keeping traces, they make more errors, impressive figures of speech and the indicators of speech's nominative function are lower), visual-spatial information (while maintaining the volume selectivity of traces is significantly worse, the combined ratio of errors is very high). The left-hemispheric functions are optimal in the group of the subjects of adult age, but in maturity they are clearly reduced. The characteristics of the right hemisphere are stable in youth and adulthood, but after 40 years a significant decrease is observed. Thus, the changes of the functions of receiving, processing and storage of information are of a variable character. Adults have advantages over young people in terms of visual, oral-aural functions. At middle age all the characteristics are significantly lower than in previous age groups.

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