Associations among response time inconsistency, attention switching, and cognitive status: A measurement burst approach.

Summary: Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can answer a question quickly, but other times it takes a bit longer? This difference in speed is called "response time inconsistency." Scientists studied 304 older adults over four years to see if this changing speed is linked to how well they can switch their focus between tasks.

They found that people who had more mixed-up response times were also slower at switching their attention. Importantly, this link was only found in people who already had some mild memory or thinking problems, not in healthy adults. This means that tracking how steady someone's reaction time is could be a great new way for doctors to spot early signs of brain aging or memory issues!