Applications of Cognitive Neuroscience of Ageing (Week 9, Lecture 2)

Grady (2012) - Current Views on Compensation

defined by studies of individual differences.

need combination of neuroimaging + behavioural studies to see brain activity in context of cog. capacity.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

benefits → change in activity of neurons (plasticity, cortical excitability) (Nitsche et al., 2007).

underlying mechanisms → dependent on neurostransmitters GABA + glutamate (Stagg et al., 2009).

tDCS - Cognitive Enhancements

Zimermann et al. (2013) → complex motor skill acuisition enhanced 24hrs-post.

Flöel et al. (2012) → improved object-location learning at 1-week follow-up.

tDCS - Sustained Benefits

Park et al. (2014) → improved accuracy of verbal WM at 4-week follow-up.

Jones et al. (2015) → enhanced verbal/visual WM 1month follow-up (+transfer to non-trained tasks).

Boggio et al. (2012) → visual WM improvement in mild-mod Alzheimer’s.

Neural Enhancement

Meinzer et al. (2013) → word-generation deficit reversal in odler adults (inferior frontal gyrus).

Meinzer et al. (2014) → improved semantic word retrieval in MCI Ps to control level + reduced over-activity in frontal gyrus regions.

Methodological Considerations

Fertonani et al. (2014) → state-dependent effects; older = benefit more from stim. during training.

Fujiyama et al. (2014) → older = delayed response to tDCS.

Learmonth et al. (2015) → education+baseline performance predict repsonse.

Laakso et al. (2015); Tatti et al. (2016) → older need stimulation for higher current and longer duration.