Cognitive and brain aging: interventions to promote well-being in old age

The field of cognitive aging has evolved from a focus on cataloging age-related declines of brain and mind in healthy older people to a focus on interventions aimed at limiting those declines. Intervention research has obtained convincing evidence of the cognitive benefits of aerobic exercise and working memory training. Recently interest has broadened to include interventions that consider the social and physical environment of the aged individual. Examples of this are investigations of training cognitive-motor integration, interventions to reduce loneliness, mindfulness training, and human factors-based approaches to cognitive deficits. Such approaches move beyond targeting specific abilities in isolation to consider more broadly the overall well-being of the healthy older person. In this Research Topic we call for both empirical and review papers that consider interventions aimed at reducing cognitive and brain aging but also approaches that consider older individuals (animal and human) in their physical and social environment.

This Research Topic will be dedicated to the memory of Raja Parasuraman who passed away unexpectedly on March 22, 2015. He was a world-renowned scholar not only in the field of cognitive aging but also in other fields, including vigilance, automation, the cognitive neuroscience of attention, and the molecular genetics of cognition and cognitive aging. Raja’s contributions to the knowledge base of cognitive aging are particularly significant. Consistent with the dedication of this Research Topic to Raja Parasuraman, the editors would appreciate acknowledgement of his work in their submissions.