GRT2100B PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF AGING MATURATIONAL CHANGES PART II CLASS #17 November 6, 2013 PROFESSOR: MELISSA BRASGOLD

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging FINAL EXAM INFO Date: Tuesday, December 17 th Time: 7 pm – 10pm Location: MNT 202 (Has changed & can again!) Worth: 40% Covering class material, reading & videos from: Class #17 – Class #24 incl.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging READING FOR FINAL EXAM P : Start at “the dying process”. P : End at “Medicare”. P : End at “Productivity & Creativity”. P : Compression of Morbidity section only. P. 90 – 96: End at “Stress as a characteristic of the environment. P : Coping & Aging section only P : Exclude “Wisdom & optimal aging” section. *Readings marked in red are material that was not covered in class, but which will be tested on the exam. Any updates will be relayed via .

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging TODAY’S OUTLINE Cognitive aging as a process of decline: Fact or Fiction?

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging ALMOST NO BRAIN!

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging “Old” Pessimistic View of aging brain Brain Damage Model of aging Universal, Pervasive, and irreversible cognitive decline. ↓ brain activation (under-activation) = deficits. (Cabeza et al., 2004; Raz, 2004). *

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Supporting the “Old” View Neural correlates of age-related decline Lower Choline and DA = attention and memory ↓ ( Castner & Goldman, 2004). Gray matter volume shrinkage (Resnick et al., 2003;Salat et al., 2004). Gray matter Pervasive white matter loss, especially prefrontal cortex (Madden et al., 2004).white matter

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Gray Matter Gray matter: the nervous tissue in brain and spinal cord made. Nerve impulses are produced here and sent from here via white matter = Responsible for information processing. Back

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging White Matter White matter: nerve axons connecting grey matter areas to each other + carry nerve impulses between neurons. Parts of brain and spinal cord responsible for information transmission. Back

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging New View of Aging Brain: Over-activation What is Compensation? What is De-differentiation? *

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging 4 Trends Indicating Over-Activation 1. Different Activation Patterns 2. Homologousity/Bilateral Activation Patterns 3. Senior specific Optimal Performance activation 4. Task-Specific Over-activation *

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Trend #1: Activation Patterns 1. Different Activation Patterns:  YA & OA matched on behavioral performance show different activation patterns Ventral versus Dorsal.  Cheryl Grady et al. (1992) PET Study.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Trend #2: Bilateral Activation/Homolgousity 2. Bilateral Activation Patterns:  OA show bilateral activation under conditions producing highly lateralized activity in YA. Study #1: TMS (Rossi et al., 2004)  YA retrieval impaired when unilateral TMS applied.  OA retrieval impaired when TMS applied to either hemisphere.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Homologousity: Spatial Working Memory Study #2 (Reuter-Lorenz et al, 2000):  Memory for 3 dots that appear on a screen for 0.5 s.  Brain activity of OA and YA who performed task with high accuracy were compared.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Findings Both groups activated: a) Left and Right parietal cortex regions b) Right frontal regions OA - Homologous network of left hemisphere sites. *

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Trends 3 & 4: Evidence of Over-activation 3. Senior specific Optimal Performance activation:  Additional areas for optimal performance = possible compensation. 4. Task-Specific Over-activation:  Task dependency seen on executive functions, motor control, episodic, auto- biographical & working memory.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging What is Older Brain Compensating for? A) New areas activated to compensate.  Gutchess et al. (2005) Study.  Overactivation not always accompanied by underactivation.  Maybe its because of our methods?

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging What is Older Brain Compensating for? B) New areas activated because OA increased difficulty and effort (Banich & Colleagues, 98).  Additional recruitment seen in YA brains with increased task difficulty. *

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging Compensation & Dedifferentiation? Both? Compensation could lead to dedifferentiation or vice versa (Reuter-Lorenz et al., 1999). Future challenge: to determine when age-related activation patterns signal compensation, declining functional specialization, or some combination.

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging SOME EXTRA’S memory-test-aging-geriatrics- memorytestfortheaging-product-training-manuals- ppt-powerpoint/ memory-test-aging-geriatrics- memorytestfortheaging-product-training-manuals- ppt-powerpoint/

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging The 2 Hemispheres

GRT 2100: Psychosocial Aspects of Aging READING AHEAD Class #19 & 20, 21 & 22 Stress & Coping - Course pack pp Housing - Course pack pp Class #24 – Elder Abuse Course pack p.35