Submitted by Administrator on Wed, 19/11/2014 - 18:07
Everyone worries about what effect their aging brain will have on their cognitive abilities as they get older. A growing number of scientists are using cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to demonstrate that the brain remains dynamic and responsive across the lifespan.
In a recent special issue of the journal Science on “The Aging Brain” Cambridge scientists Dr Meredith A. Shafto and Professor Lorraine K. Tyler review the latest evidence for how the aging brain affects one of most crucial and complex cognitive skills, producing and understanding language. Both behavioural and neuroimaging evidence suggest that while normal aging impairs specific aspects of language production, most core language processes are robust to brain aging.
In their review the authors provide a novel integration of a range of findings from studies of both brain and performance, and argue that both younger adults and older adults maintain good language abilities via flexible neural responses to linguistic demands.
Although the authors highlight reasons for specific age-related declines in language, their review ultimately supports a growing view that neurocognitive aging is not all downhill, and that older adults can maintain dynamic and responsive neural systems, including those underpinning language.
Details of the publication
Shafto, M. A., & Tyler, L. K. (2014). Language in the aging brain: The network dynamics of cognitive decline and preservation. Science, 346(6209), 583-587. DOI: 10.1126/science.1254404
Science website: http://www.sciencemag.org