Interdisciplinary Lifecourse Approaches to African American Cognitive Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：本次科学会议申请的目的是创建一个跨学科研究团队，为非裔美国人认知衰老的神经科学新研究奠定理论和方法基础。该团队工作的中心目标将是提供必要的基础，以缩小知识方面的关键差距，并提高非裔美国人认知衰老研究的质量、创新和生产力。这个由神经心理学家、认知心理学家、神经科学家、流行病学家、老年学家、统计学家、社会学家和遗传学家组成的跨学科团队将为非裔美国人的认知衰老研究绘制蓝图，这将促进有关整个生命周期中社会文化经历对大脑健康影响的新发现。通过将非裔美国人从童年到老年的这些不同经历纳入衰老神经科学研究，可以阐明认知、心血管健康、遗传学、大脑结构和大脑功能之间复杂的相互作用。对这些相互作用的综合理解对于制定干预措施以维持其中的认知健康至关重要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this scientific meeting application is to create an interdisciplinary research team that will lay the theoretical and methodological groundwork for novel investigation of the neuroscience of cognitive aging among African Americans. The central goal of this team's work will be to provide the foundation needed to close critical gaps in knowledge and to enhance the quality, innovation, and productivity of cognitive aging research among African Americans. This interdisciplinary team of neuropsychologists, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, gerontologists, statisticians, sociologists, and geneticists, will produce a blueprint for research on cognitive aging among African Americans that will facilitate new discoveries about the impact of socio-cultural experiences throughout the life span on brain health. By incorporating measures of these diverse experiences of African Americans, from childhood to older age, into research on the neuroscience of aging, complex interactions between cognition, cardiovascular health, genetics, brain structure, and brain function can be elucidated. An integrated understanding of these interactions is critical for developing interventions to maintain cognitive health among this understudied population. This objective will be achieved by holding a series of in-person meetings and video conferences that bring together researchers with expertise in diverse research sub-disciplines to promote scientific exchange and develop a comprehensive agenda on African American cognitive aging. At these meetings, the interdisciplinary group will: 1) determine the most innovative models, methodology and analytic approaches to address critical gaps in research knowledge on cognitive aging among African Americans, and will develop a blueprint for research with specific recommendations for future work; 2) determine how existing data or new follow-up data from large, ethnically diverse cohorts of children, young and middle-aged adults, and older persons can be used to address critical research questions in cognitive aging among African Americans; and 3) disseminate recommendations about how to increase numbers of African Americans enrolled in current or planned studies of cognitive aging, by leveraging resources already created by RCMARs and other NIH-funded studies that have been successful with minority recruitment, and integration of community-based participatory research (CBPR). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Prior studies show that African Americans have higher prevalence and incidence of cognitive impairment and dementia as compared with non-Hispanic Whites. However, our understanding of the reasons for this disparity, risk factors for cognitive impairment, and early markers of future decline among African Americans has lagged behind our understanding of these factors among Whites. The proposed scientific meeting will address this gap in knowledge using an interdisciplinary approach, and is timely given the rapid population growth of older African Americans.