The Aging Mind Opportunities in Cognitive Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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1 Understanding the Aging Mind
1 Understanding the Aging Mind
Pages 7-13
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From page 7... ...
For the many aging people in good physical condition, cognitive decline is the main threat to their ability to continue enjoying their favorite activities; for those whose physical activities are limited, cognitive decline is a major additional threat to quality of life. The view that aging is synonymous with universal and rapid cognitive decline is giving way to a recognition that for some aging individuals, mental acuity continues well into advanced age.
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From page 8... ...
The time is right for developing intervention strategies to maintain the integrity of neuronal function and to rescue and repair malfunctioning neurons. Behavioral researchers are making rapid progress in classifying types of cognitive functioning, measuring them, tracking changes in particular functions over the life cycle, and documenting declines, maintenance, and improvement in these functions over the life span.
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From page 9... ...
This realization drew the committee to consider the ways that each perspective might illuminate the others to develop a conceptual framework that would facilitate making these connections. Such a framework represents the performance of life's cognitive tasks by aging individuals as dependent on three interacting systems: cognitive structures and processes, neural health, and behavioral context, including task structure and social, cultural, and technological factors.
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From page 10... ...
Systematic differences in life experiences between cultural groups may also affect cognitive aging by altering the brain. Thus, research on the aging mind includes studies to determine the health of aging neurons; the ways in which social, behavioral, and somatic variables affect neural health and cognitive structure, content, and process; and the effects of molecular, cellular, and behavioral interventions on neural health and cognitive functioning.
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From page 11... ...
IDENTIFYING RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES Our task has been to identify areas of opportunity in which additional research support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) would substantially improve understanding of cognitive functioning in aging by drawing on recent developments in behavioral science, cognitive science, and neuroscience that are not yet fully applied to this subject area.
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From page 12... ...
This chapter explains the committee's conceptual framework and the way we went about identifying research opportunities. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 focus on three substantive areas in which we propose major research initiatives, and Chapter 5 addresses implementation issues in pursuing these initiatives.
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From page 13... ...
It discusses the major interindividual differences in rates and patterns of change in cognitive content, structure, and process during aging and recommends a major research initiative to specify and explain these patterns in relation to agerelated changes in the brain, sensory and motor systems, nonneurological diseases, and life experiences that may predispose toward or protect against cognitive decline. The chapter discusses the value of brain-imaging technology for contributing to the needed understanding; the need to develop behavioral indicators that are closely associated with the action of particular neural circuits; and the potential for applying concepts and methods from other areas of cognitive research, particularly cognitive development in early life, to studying the dynamics of cognitive aging.
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