The Aging Brain Functional Adaptation Across Adulthood

Finalist in the 2020 PROSE Awards

Brain aging—and human aging more broadly—has long been seen as a process of slow, and inevitable, deterioration and decline.  Today, this view has been challenged with research demonstrating a more complex set of changes - growth, decline, adaptation, selectivity, and reorganization - in brain structure and function across adulthood.  In fact, research in both behavioral and brain science shows that not all cognitive processes decline with age, that in fact some improve over the course of adulthood, and those that improve can often compensate for those that decline.  It turns out that the aging brain is very much alive, a remarkable example of life’s ability to survive and adapt in increasingly challenging environments.   

Chapters in this multidisciplinary volume examine structural and related functional changes in the aging brain, and the neural mechanisms underlying such changes; age-related changes in learning and episodic memory; risk and protective factors; and the assessment and prevention of cognitive decline. 
 

Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University.  His research examines how individual and age differences in motivation and cognition influence decision making across the life span. This research is at the intersection of a number of subfields within psychology, neuroscience, and economics including human development, affective science, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics, and finance. He uses a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging techniques ranging from detailed measurement of functional brain activity (fMRI) and neuroreceptors (PET) in the laboratory to experience sampling in everyday life. Greg lives in Durham, NC. Visit www.mcablab.science, and follow @GregoryRSL.
 

Contributors
 Preface
Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
 Introduction
Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
 Chapter 1: Structure and Function of the Aging Brain
R. Nathan Spreng and Gary R. Turner
 Chapter 2: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Age-Related Changes in Attentional Selectivity
Briana L. Kennedy and Mara Mather
 Chapter 3: Learning and Memory in the Aging Brain: The Function of Declarative and Nondeclarative Memory Over the Lifespan
Nichole R. Lighthall, Lindsay B. Conner, and Kelly S. Giovanello
 Chapter 4: Age-Related Changes in Episodic Memory
Audrey Duarte and Elizabeth Kensinger
 Chapter 5: Motivated Memory, Learning, and Decision-Making in Older Age: Shifts in Priorities and Goals
Mary B. Hargis, Alexander L. M. Siegel, and Alan D. Castel
 Chapter 6: Social Function and Motivation in the Aging Brain
Angela Gutchess and Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
 Chapter 7: Compensation and Brain Aging: A Review and Analysis of Evidence
Laura B. Zahodne and Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz
 Chapter 8: Risk and Protective Factors in Cognitive Aging: Advances in Assessment, Prevention, and Promotion of Alternative Pathways
Roger A. Dixon and Margie E. Lachman
 Index
 About the Editor