Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Lifespan Development and the Brain
- PART ONE SETTING THE STAGE ACROSS THE AGES OF THE LIFESPAN
- PART TWO NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: MICROSTRUCTURE MEETS THE EXPERIENTIAL ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: ATYPICAL BRAIN ARCHITECTURES
- PART FOUR BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS AND DOMAINS
- PART FIVE PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION IN LATER LIFE
- 11 Influences of Biological and Self-Initiated Factors on Brain and Cognition in Adulthood and Aging
- 12 The Aging Mind and Brain: Implications of Enduring Plasticity for Behavioral and Cultural Change
- PART SIX BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: FROM MICRO- TO MACROENVIRONMENTS IN LARGER CULTURAL CONTEXTS
- PART SEVEN EPILOGUE
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
12 - The Aging Mind and Brain: Implications of Enduring Plasticity for Behavioral and Cultural Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Lifespan Development and the Brain
- PART ONE SETTING THE STAGE ACROSS THE AGES OF THE LIFESPAN
- PART TWO NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: MICROSTRUCTURE MEETS THE EXPERIENTIAL ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE NEURONAL PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: ATYPICAL BRAIN ARCHITECTURES
- PART FOUR BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS AND DOMAINS
- PART FIVE PLASTICITY AND BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION IN LATER LIFE
- 11 Influences of Biological and Self-Initiated Factors on Brain and Cognition in Adulthood and Aging
- 12 The Aging Mind and Brain: Implications of Enduring Plasticity for Behavioral and Cultural Change
- PART SIX BIOCULTURAL CO-CONSTRUCTION: FROM MICRO- TO MACROENVIRONMENTS IN LARGER CULTURAL CONTEXTS
- PART SEVEN EPILOGUE
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
ABSTRACT
Although aging is broadly characterized by decline, the potential for new learning and plasticity persists well into the later decades of life. Scientific advances are yielding a deeper understanding of the limitations that biological aging imposes on cognitive function, as well as new insights into how the human mind and brain respond adaptively to the aging process. Neurocognitive investigations of the reciprocity between mind and brain reveal new avenues to influence and shape neural processes that underlie mental fitness, especially in the golden years. We explore these ideas to illustrate the co-constructivist framework in operation across neural, cognitive, behavioral, and cultural dimensions as they influence late-life development.
OVERVIEW
The persistence of behavioral adaptation and plasticity (i.e., modifiability) in later life has been recognized by the field of cognitive aging for several decades (e.g., Baltes, 1997). Training procedures of various sorts have been shown to enhance cognitive performance and produce long-term gains, even for older adults well into their seventies (e.g., Willis & Nesselroade, 1990). With the recent advances in genetics, in the basic neurosciences, and in brain imaging technologies, the scope and potential of age-related reorganizational processes have attained a new level of analysis and persuasion, especially for researchers whose theoretical orientation is closely linked to brain correlates of plasticity (Park, Polk, Mikels, Taylor, & Marshuetz, 2001; Reuter-Lorenz, 2002).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lifespan Development and the BrainThe Perspective of Biocultural Co-Constructivism, pp. 255 - 276Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
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