Interdisciplinary Lifecourse Approaches to African American Cognitive Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：这个科学会议应用程序的目的是创建一个跨学科的研究团队，将奠定理论和方法基础的新的调查认知老化的神经科学在非洲裔美国人。该团队工作的中心目标将是提供所需的基础，以缩小知识的关键差距，并提高非裔美国人认知老化研究的质量，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，老年病学家，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老化研究绘制蓝图，这将促进有关社会文化经验对大脑健康的影响的新发现。通过将非裔美国人从童年到老年的这些不同经历的测量纳入对衰老的神经科学的研究中，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的复杂相互作用。对这些相互作用的综合理解对于制定干预措施以维持认知健康至关重要。 被忽视的人群这一目标将通过举行一系列面对面会议和视频会议来实现，这些会议将具有不同研究子学科专业知识的研究人员聚集在一起，以促进科学交流并制定关于非洲裔美国人认知老化的全面议程。在这些会议上，跨学科小组将：1）确定最具创新性的模型，方法和分析方法，以解决非洲裔美国人认知老化研究知识的关键差距，并将制定研究蓝图，为未来工作提出具体建议; 2）确定现有数据或来自大型、种族多样的儿童、青年和中年人队列的新随访数据，和老年人可以用来解决非洲裔美国人认知老化的关键研究问题;以及3）传播关于如何增加非裔美国人参加当前或计划中的认知老化研究的人数的建议，通过利用RCMARs和其他NIH资助的研究已经创建的资源，这些研究在少数族裔招募方面取得了成功，并整合了基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR）。

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).