Aging, working memory, and attention control: A tale of two processing streams?
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1
University of Illinois, Champaign, United States
Normal aging is characterized by changes in a number of cognitive processes, including increased difficulty in maintaining information in working memory, especially in the presence of distractors or competing events, in dividing attention between concurrent tasks, and in inhibiting prepotent responses that are no longer required. Many of these functions are ascribed to age-related changes in frontal lobe function. In this talk I will review some current theories of aging that have inspired my work, and present several examples of data from our laboratory highlighting some of the mechanisms that underlie changes in frontal function in aging. This work takes advantage of the integration of a number of imaging modalities (including event-related brain potentials, structural and functional MR and optical imaging). It also exploits individual differences in working memory capacity, anatomy and fitness to examine whether there are discontinuities in the aging process, their behavioral and anatomical consequences, as well as factors that may hold promise for staving off the negative effects of aging.
Keywords:
Aging,
attentional control,
working memory
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Keynote Lecture
Topic:
Keynote Lectures
Citation:
Fabiani
M
(2011). Aging, working memory, and attention control: A tale of two processing streams?.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00008
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Received:
02 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
08 Nov 2011.
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Correspondence:
Dr. Monica Fabiani, University of Illinois, Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States, mfabiani@illinois.edu