Brain
Aging, Its Modifiers and Cognitive Correlates
Wayne State University
Course Prerequisites:
1. A graduate
course in physiological psychology or basic neuroscience.
2. A graduate intro course in cognitive
psychology
3. Some basic knowledge of gross neuroanatomy.
Course Description:
Deciphering the secret of successful aging depends on understanding the
patterns of cognitive and behavioral change throughout adulthood. In this course, we will examine the extant
literature on age-related differences and changes in the neuroanatomy.
We will
summarize the findings from postmortem studies, and cross-sectional and
review
longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging studies of whole-brain and
regional
anatomy, including volumetry,
diffusion-tensor
imaging, and evaluations of white matter hyperintensities.
Further, we will review the literature on metabolic markers of aging.
We will
discuss the putative links between the pattern of brain aging and the
pattern
of cognitive decline and stability. We will discuss the examples of
activities
and conditions (hypertension, hormone deficiency, aerobicfitness) that may influence the
course of
normal aging in a positive or negative fashion.
Lastly, we will speculate on several proposed mechanisms of
differential
brain aging and its links to cognitive changes in late-life development.
Reading List
1. Raz,
N., Lindenberger,
U., Rodrigue, K.M., Kennedy, K.M., Head,
D. Williamson,
A., Dahle, C., Gerstorf,
D., & Acker, J.D. (2005). Regional
brain changes in aging healthy adults: General trends, individual
differences,
and modifiers. Cerebral Cortex, in press.
2. Raz.,
N & Rodrigue, K.M., Differential Aging
of the Brain: Patterns,
Cognitive Correlates and Modifiers. Neuroscience
and Biobehavioral Reviews, in press.
3. Raz,
N. (2000). Aging of the brain
and its impact on cognitive performance: Integration of structural and
functional findings. In:
F.I.M. Craik
and T.A. Salthouse (Eds.) Handbook of
Aging and
Cognition- II. (Pp.1-90).
4. Raz,
N. (2004).The aging brain
observed in vivo: Differential changes and their modifiers. Chapter 2
in R. Cabeza, L. Nyberg, &