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
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T20:07:58.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2019

By
Kenneth M. Heilman  and
Stephen E. Nadeau
Edited by
Kenneth M. Heilman  and
Stephen E. Nadeau
Kenneth M. Heilman
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Stephen E. Nadeau
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Get access

Summary

Our brains are continuously changing and these changes alter brain functions. With maturation, there is growth and unfortunately, even with healthy aging, decline. Aging-related decrements affect neurons and their connectivity, neurotransmitter systems, and even support systems such as glia. Aging affects some brain regions (frontal lobes and hippocampi) more than others. This book reviews and discusses aging-related changes and their influence on the major neurobehavioral domains, beginning with reviews of aging-related changes in anatomy and physiology. Subsequent chapters review cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of aging-related changes in sensory perception (vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste) and cognitive functions (memory, language, motor planning, attention, executive functions, emotions, creativity). In each chapter, mechanisms that may account for these changes are discussed. Declines related to aging per se are distinguished from declines related to aging-associated diseases. Final chapters discuss what can potentially be done to slow or reverse aging-related decline of cognitive functions, including exercise, cognitive rehabilitation, and pharmacological agents. It is hoped this book will help clinicians differentiate between normal aging processes and brain diseases, reduce the adverse effects of brain aging, and stimulate further research on how adverse effects of brain aging can be reversed, stopped, modified, or best managed.

Keywords

brainagingcognitive declinemechanismssenescencecognitive rehabilitationexercisepharmacologymemorylanguagesensory perceptionmotor functionpraxisemotionexecutive functionattentioncreativityimaging
Type
Chapter
Information
Cognitive Changes and the Aging Brain , pp. 1 - 4
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Broca, P. Remarques sur le siege de la faculte du language articule, suivies d’une observation d’aphemie. Bulletin de la Societe d’Anthropologie. 1861;2:330–57.Google Scholar
Broca, P. Sur le siege de la faculte du langage articule. Bulletin de la Societe d’Anthropologie. 1865;6:337–93.Google Scholar
Wernicke, C. Der Aphasische Symptomenkomplex (Trans.). Boston Stud Phil Sci. 1874;4:34–97.Google Scholar
Geschwind, N, Levitsky, W. Human brain: left-right asymmetries in temporal speech region. Science. 1968;161:186–7.Google Scholar
Foundas, AL, Leonard, CM, Gilmore, RL, Fennell, EB, Heilman, KM. Pars triangularis asymmetry and language dominance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 1996;93:719–22.Google Scholar
Brodmann, K. Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues. Leipzig: Barth; 1909.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×