Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging

加拿大人口正在老龄化。根据加拿大统计局的数据，目前老年人占总人口的五分之一，预计到2059年这一比例将上升到四分之一。现在比以往任何时候都更重要的是了解衰老是如何影响大脑和大脑的。描述哪些认知过程衰退，哪些认知过程被保留，以及这些过程在大脑中如何相互作用，可以提高我们针对那些需要干预的功能并利用那些被保留的功能的能力。坎贝尔博士研究计划的首要目标是了解注意控制方面的年龄差异是如何影响记忆的，注意控制是指专注于我们想要记住的事情，同时排除无关的分心的能力。坎贝尔博士将使用行为和神经成像方法(例如，功能磁共振成像和脑电图仪)，对三个涉及较年轻(18-30岁)和较年长(65岁以上)的成年参与者进行研究，以：1)调查防止因扰乱短期记忆而分心的能力的年龄差异；2)确定大脑结构和功能的年龄差异如何影响长期记忆中关联的形成；3)测试日常生活中注意力控制减少对老年人记忆的影响。这项研究是新颖的，因为它表明，与年龄相关的短期和长期记忆下降的一个主要原因是对错误信息的关注。坎贝尔博士的研究表明，老年人会处理更多分散注意力的信息，这可能是因为负责控制注意力的额叶和顶叶大脑区域的激活减少。虽然专注于分散注意力的信息通常会扰乱表现，但当之前分散注意力的信息后来变得相关时(例如，如果当前纵横字谜的解决方案最近出现在报纸的页边空白处)，它也可以提高记忆力和决策能力。此外，与人们对衰老的普遍刻板印象相反，坎贝尔博士的研究表明，一些记忆过程会随着年龄的增长而保留下来(例如，形成新联想的能力，比如面孔和名字之间的联系)。事实上，老年人似乎比年轻人形成了更多的联想，这些联想有时会帮助或伤害记忆，这取决于背景。综上所述，这项工作挑战了关于衰老的常见假设，并表明记忆干预实际上应该旨在改善注意力。

The Canadian population is aging. According to Statistics Canada, seniors currently account for one-fifth of the population and this is expected to rise to one-quarter by 2059. It is now more critical than ever to understand how aging affects the mind and brain. Delineating which cognitive processes decline, which are preserved, and how these processes interact in the brain improves our ability to target those functions that require intervention and harness those that are preserved.The overarching goal of Dr. Campbell's research program is to understand how memory is affected by age differences in attentional control, which is the ability to focus on things we want to remember while blocking out irrelevant distraction. Across three lines of research involving younger (18-30 years) and older (65+ years) adult participants, Dr. Campbell will use both behavioural and neuroimaging methods (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography) to: 1) investigate age differences in the ability to prevent distraction from cluttering short-term memory; 2) determine how age differences in brain structure and function affect the formation of associations in long-term memory; and 3) test the implications of reduced attentional control for older adults' memory in everyday life.This work is novel because it suggests that a major cause of age-related declines in both short- and long-term memory is attention to the wrong information. Dr. Campbell's research has shown that older adults attend to more distracting information, possibly due to reduced activation of frontal and parietal brain regions responsible for controlling attention. While attending to distracting information often disrupts performance, it can also boost memory and decision making when previously distracting information later becomes relevant (e.g., if the solution to a current crossword puzzle recently appeared in the margins of one's newspaper). Further, contrary to common stereotypes about aging, Dr. Campbell's research has shown that some memory processes are preserved with age (e.g., the ability to form new associations, such as between a face and a name). Indeed, older adults seem to form more associations than younger adults, and these can sometimes help or hurt memory depending on the context. Taken together, this work challenges common assumptions about aging and suggests that memory interventions should actually aim to improve attention.