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Memory Enhancement in Older Adults. Cognition. “18”. Cross-sectional Studies: Cohort Effects. Testing people of various ages at the same point in time using standardized tests. Standardized Testing. Longitudinal Studies. The same people are studied over a span of time. Intelligence Types.
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Memory Enhancement in Older Adults Cognition
Cross-sectional Studies: Cohort Effects Testing people of various ages at the same point in time using standardized tests
Longitudinal Studies The same people are studied over a span of time
Intelligence Types • Fluid intelligence information processing and memory • Crystallized intelligence information people have learned through experience and that they can apply in problem-solving situations
Cognitive Decline and Aging Normal Aging is associated with progressive functional losses in • Perception • Cognition • Memory
Age-Related Cognitive Decline (ARCD) • Non-pathological losses in cognitive function • Nearly universal aspect of aging • Negatively impacts quality of life • May begin as early as 30 • Tends to slowly worsen steadily with age
Brain Plasticity • The brain’s lifelong capacity for physical and functional change • Enables experience to induce learning throughout life
Plasticity Processes • Inherently Competitive • Will always be a “winner” and a “loser” • Plastic changes with negative consequences are just as common as those with positive outcomes
Causes of ARCD A combination of • Physical changes in the aging brain • Brain plasticity with negative consequences
Memory Enhancement Study in Healthy Older Adults “Because the brain retains a lifelong capacity for plasticity and adaptive reorganization, dimensions of negative reorganization should be at least partially reversible through the use of an appropriately designed training program”
Brain Plasticity Research Study The adult brain • is adaptive at any age • has a lifelong capacity to refine the spacial or temporal features of sensory inputs or of movements
Video Clips Exercise Your Brain - Dr Sanjay Gupta Art Kramer- Beckman Institute (3:56) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPD7HwH5pvo&feature=related Brain plasticity and strength training movements Super Body, Super Brain (1:55) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1rjIMjB3o How MRI works (1:31) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E1GoWhSlho&feature=related How fMRI works (0:22) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVht8AMknfc Art Kramer- Beckman Institute (detailed) (8:46) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o98aYKPAs34 Ron White and 6 year-old (5:03) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAJkv-l_t_A
Link • A Harvard Psychiatrist Explains Zombie Neurobiology http://io9.com/5286145/a-harvard-psychiatrist-explains-zombie-neurobiology
Discussion Questions • Can increases in crystallized intelligence compensate partially or fully for declines in fluid intelligence in older adults?
Discussion Questions • What types of activities can people do to maintain or increase intelligence in adulthood?