Ageing
Full course description
This course covers a broad range of topics in the field of cognitive development and ageing. The initial focus is on healthy ageing, to better understand processing changes that may arise in abnormal aging such as in neurodegeneration. Important questions covered will include: What is ageing, why do we age? What neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms determine whether a person ages pathologically, normally, or successfully? Can the ageing process be influenced? To address these questions, students will critically reflect on influential theories, state-of-the-art research, established research methods, and clinical interventions. General themes are physical ageing, neural ageing, cognitive ageing, pathological ageing (mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Parkinson’s disease), intervention strategies in ageing (including body/mind), and methodological issues in ageing research.
The final assessment for this course is a numerical grade between 0,0 and 10,0.
Course objectives
Participants will obtain active understanding of:
Physical ageing, evolutionary theories of ageing, neural aging, amyloid cascade hypothesis, temporal lobe dysfunction, frontal lobe dysfunction, subcortical dysfunction, processing-speed theory, white matter decline, decline of cognitive control, inhibition deficit hypothesis, default-mode network dysfunction, parietal lobe dysfunction, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and other types of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, successful ageing, reserve theories, compensation and intervention, body/mind interventions in ageing and emotional ageing.
- W.J. Jansen
- V. van Gils