Study finds which brain skills are more likely to last over a lifetime
Research from the Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) at The University of Texas at Dallas has shed new light on which cognitive processes tend to be preserved with age and which ones decline.
Results from a study recently published in NeuroImage confirm behavioral findings that verbal ability—the accurate memory of words and vocabulary—remains intact during a lifetime while reasoning ability decreases in older adults.
In the study, participants— 316 individuals ages 20 to 89—made simple and difficult judgments about word meaning to test their cognitive abilities as scientists measured their brain responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For difficult judgments, the brain regions that were activated and declined with age included those that are usually rich in a neurotransmitter substance called dopamine…
Dr. Kennedy named Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science
April 2, 2013
What does your research focus on?
I am most generally interested in brain-behavior relationships as we age, or the cognitive neuroscience of aging. Specifically, I study how changes to the brain’s structure with age correspond to the changes we see in cognition as we age. Interestingly, there is not a one-to-one relationship in this process because our brains are malleable to cope with the biological effects of aging, and our cognitive strategies may also re-arrange to cope with decrements to brain structure. My research focuses on how these processes are related in the course of normal aging and how we build upon our strengths as we age…
Prof Studies White Matter for Insights into the Aging Brain
By Office of Media Relations • Dec. 4, 2012
Dr. Kristen Kennedy is looking to the brain’s white matter for clues about how the brain changes as we age and why some people are able to maintain good cognitive health while others are not.
Nearly half the human brain is white matter, which consists of millions of bundles of nerve fibers that connect neurons in different brain regions into functional circuits.
Kennedy joined the UT Dallas faculty this year as an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) and UT Dallas’ Center for Vital Longevity.
“White matter loses integrity as we age, but the brain is also really good at compensating for this,” said Kennedy. “Structural losses don’t necessarily translate to loss of brain function, which suggests that the aging brain is malleable and able to adapt in response to lost or weak neural connections.”
Kennedy began her career with a clinical focus, earning a master’s degree in clinical neuropsychology from Emporia State University in Kansas and her PhD in psychology from Wayne State University in Michigan. Her early studies used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a tool to investigate age-related changes to the structure of the brain, and she quickly gravitated to the idea of using multimodal brain-imaging tools to examine the healthy brain structure’s role in how brain function changes over the lifespan…