PSYC 3374 Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognitive Aging

This course will examine recent work being conducted in cognitive psychology and neuroscience to understand the effects of healthy aging on the cognitive and neural processes associated with functions such as perception, language, memory, and emotion. The course will introduce and examine research studies that rely on a variety of research methods, including behavioral testing, functional neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI), and structural imaging, and will focus on how the integration of these methods has allowed researchers to better understand the effects of aging. Although the course will focus on healthy aging, it will conclude with an examination of age-related diseases (e.g., Alzheimers disease), allowing for a discussion of the ways in which the effects of disease differ from those of healthy aging.