Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 3 - How Age-Related Changes in the Brain Affect Cognition

  • from Part I - Models of Cognitive Aging
  • Edited by Ayanna K. Thomas, Tufts University, Massachusetts, Angela Gutchess, Brandeis University, Massachusetts
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging
    Published online:
    28 May 2020
    Print publication:
    28 May 2020, pp 47-61

  • Summary

    Cognition changes with age, and the amount and trajectory of change varies across individuals and functions. In this review, we argue that three general principles characterize adult life-span changes in brain and cognition. (1) Dimensionality: Many features of brain and cognition in aging and neurodegenerative disease represent quantitative differences along a continuum and are not unique to pathology. (2) Early influences – developmental origins of health and disease: Genetic dispositions and early environmental factors, likely even from fetal life, can have lasting impact on the brain and cognition. (3) Influences from a multitude of environmental factors: Current brain state and cognitive function will be determined by a combination of early factors and later environmental influences, often in interaction. These principles entail a model of age-associated cognitive decline and dementia based on dimensions rather than categories, life span rather than aging, and multidimensional systems-vulnerability rather than one major “biomarker.”