[Psychological function in aging].

ABSTRACT

Physical function was declined in aging as well as sensory function in human. Motor slowness and unbalance gait occur as well as decline of ability visual acuity and hearing let elderly people live in limited daily activity. Psychological functions are also thought to be decline in aging. In International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health(ICF), psychological functions are classified into attention, memory, psychomotor, emotion, perception, thought, higher-level cognitive functions, language, calculation, sequencing complex movements, experience of self and time functions and unspecified functions. It is difficult to assess an individual psychological function itself, because some functions may affect each other and results of evaluations of a psychological function may not represent the meaning of the function. There were numerous reports on physical function in aging in a cross sectional or a longitudinal study design. In this article, we review changes of psychological function in aging.