University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing & Cognitive Epidemiology supported by BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC and MRC
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology
Professor Ian Deary, Director of the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology.
We aim to: (1) identify the risk factors for, and mechanisms of, individual differences in age-related cognitive decline; and (2) try to understand why prior cognitive ability-even from childhood-is associated with health and survival in later life.
People differ greatly in the degree to which their brains, and the rest of their bodies, decline with age. Cognitive ageing is complex: there is little age-related decline in some mental functions-such as vocabulary, some numerical skills, and general knowledge-but other mental capabilities decline from middle age onwards, or even earlier. Mental competence is necessary for carrying out everyday activities, living independently, and for general health and wellbeing, and mental capability itself is a causative factor in adult health, especially in old age. Low levels of mental ability, even from early life, and any age-related cognitive decline, are important risk factors for premature illness and death.
We don‘t fully understand the biological foundations of cognitive ageing, and we don‘t fully understand why human intelligence is linked to later health and wellbeing. The Centre is devoted to adding new, practically-useful knowledge to help reduce this ignorance.
Professor Ian Deary, Director of the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology.
We aim to: (1) identify the risk factors for, and mechanisms of, individual differences in age-related cognitive decline; and (2) try to understand why prior cognitive ability-even from childhood-is associated with health and survival in later life.
People differ greatly in the degree to which their brains, and the rest of their bodies, decline with age. Cognitive ageing is complex: there is little age-related decline in some mental functions-such as vocabulary, some numerical skills, and general knowledge-but other mental capabilities decline from middle age onwards, or even earlier. Mental competence is necessary for carrying out everyday activities, living independently, and for general health and wellbeing, and mental capability itself is a causative factor in adult health, especially in old age. Low levels of mental ability, even from early life, and any age-related cognitive decline, are important risk factors for premature illness and death.
We don‘t fully understand the biological foundations of cognitive ageing, and we don‘t fully understand why human intelligence is linked to later health and wellbeing. The Centre is devoted to adding new, practically-useful knowledge to help reduce this ignorance.
Technical Summary
The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology will be a centre of excellence for research and training in cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology. Cognitive ageing concerns the impact of age on human cognition and how this contributes to quality of life. Cognitive epidemiology studies how and why cognition influences wellbeing, health and survival.
There are many aspects of ageing that need to be considered: genetic, medical, biological, lifestyle, psychological and social. To understand how each of these influences cognition, the Centre has scientific expertise from each of these specialities. The teams assembled to form the Centre have specific skills in: the psychological study of human cognitive ageing; the medical aspects that influence cognitive ageing in humans and animals; modelling human cognitive ageing in animal and laboratory systems. In addition, the Centre will have collaborators with expertise in: imaging techniques that show how age changes the structure and function of the brain; genetic aspects of brain ageing in humans and animals, and the complex statistical analyses required seamlessly to knit this area together. Forming a Centre will enable these groups to work together so that insights from one area of research can be tested in others. The data used by these scientists also constitute a valuable asset to the Centre with several unique cohorts of human volunteers. For example, the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936 contain over 1,500 people who had cognitive ability tested both in youth and old age.
Just as there are influences on the body throughout life that affect whether or not the brain ages successfully, the converse is also true. People?s level of cognitive ability, from childhood onwards, influences their later health, wellbeing and survival. The Centre?s scientists will study the reasons for this association and its implications for improving health. They have gathered several, large sets of data from a number of countries to investigate over the next five years.
The Centre?s work will provide new information on: why some people?s mental functioning ages better than others; what the underlying mechanisms are; how cognitive ability affects health and wellbeing and which aspects are affected. The work will be applied to preventing or alleviating the decline in the thinking skills of older people and improving lifelong health and wellbeing.
There are many aspects of ageing that need to be considered: genetic, medical, biological, lifestyle, psychological and social. To understand how each of these influences cognition, the Centre has scientific expertise from each of these specialities. The teams assembled to form the Centre have specific skills in: the psychological study of human cognitive ageing; the medical aspects that influence cognitive ageing in humans and animals; modelling human cognitive ageing in animal and laboratory systems. In addition, the Centre will have collaborators with expertise in: imaging techniques that show how age changes the structure and function of the brain; genetic aspects of brain ageing in humans and animals, and the complex statistical analyses required seamlessly to knit this area together. Forming a Centre will enable these groups to work together so that insights from one area of research can be tested in others. The data used by these scientists also constitute a valuable asset to the Centre with several unique cohorts of human volunteers. For example, the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936 contain over 1,500 people who had cognitive ability tested both in youth and old age.
Just as there are influences on the body throughout life that affect whether or not the brain ages successfully, the converse is also true. People?s level of cognitive ability, from childhood onwards, influences their later health, wellbeing and survival. The Centre?s scientists will study the reasons for this association and its implications for improving health. They have gathered several, large sets of data from a number of countries to investigate over the next five years.
The Centre?s work will provide new information on: why some people?s mental functioning ages better than others; what the underlying mechanisms are; how cognitive ability affects health and wellbeing and which aspects are affected. The work will be applied to preventing or alleviating the decline in the thinking skills of older people and improving lifelong health and wellbeing.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ian Deary (Principal Investigator) |