Mastered

• Gerontology: scientific study of aging from maturity through old age
• Plasticity: The ability we have to change or improve skills over time. Brain’s ability to rewire itself
• Historical Context: We develop within a context- a time and culture. *People growing up during the great depression might have some unique characteristics*
• nature: The degree to which genetic or hereditary influences determine the kind of person you are
• Nurture: The degree to which experiential or environmental influences determine the kind of person you are
• Non - normative Influences: Random or rare events that may be important for an individual, but are not experienced by most people. *Winning the lottery, death of a parent during childhood*
• Primary aging: Normal, disease-free aging. *Menopause, declines in RT, pruning of social relationships*
• Secondary aging: Related to disease, lifestyle, or environment. *Exposure to toxins, pollutants, cardiovascular disease*
• Tertiary aging: Rapid loss before death. --Terminal drop- large decline right before death.
• Chronological age: age in elapsed time
• Perceived age: age you think of yourself as.
• Naturalistic systematic Observation: People are observed out in the real world.
• Representative Sampling: Our samples should be representative of the population we are interested in studying.
• Cohort effects: differences caused by experiences and circumstances unique to the generation to which one belongs.
• Longitudinal designs: same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives.
• Neuroscience: the study of the brain and its plasticity
• Antioxidants: Compounds that protect cells from the harmful effects of free radicals
• Free radicals: substances that can damage cells, including brain cells, and play a role in cancer and other diseases as we age
• Neurons: basic building blocks of the brain.
• Dendrites: tree-like structures that receive signals from adjacent neurons.
• Axon: the tail of the neuron that transmits information from the cell body to the terminal branches
• Terminal branches: pass information to other neurons via neurotransmitters across a synapse
• Neuroanatomy: study of the structure of the brain.
• As we age the number of neurons decreases and dendrites size and numbers declines
• as we age there are declines of white matter (myelinated axons)
• regions with significant degeneration: PFC, hippocampus, cerebellum
• regions with little degeneration: sensory function regions
• Theory of mind: The understanding that people have beliefs, desires, ideas, feelings, intentions, and viewpoints that are different from our own. *People don’t always share the same knowledge that we do*
• Fast/automatic system: More likely in ambiguous situations or when attention/motivation are low. Orbitofrontal cortex, lateral temporal cortex, amygdala, basal ganglia. Less age-related deterioration
• Slow/deliberative system: Attention high. PFC, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus. More severe deterioration
• Parieto Frontal integration theory (P-FIT): Intelligence comes from a network of neurons in the parietal and frontal areas of the brain
• Pasa Model: Posterior-anterior shift in aging: shift from occipital to frontal processing
• Plasticity: Changes in structure and function of the brain as the result of interaction between the brain and environment
• Osteoporosis: severe bone degeneration
• Rheumatoid arthritis: more destructive disease of the joints that slowly develops and causes other types of pain and more inflammation than osteoarthritis
• Glaucoma: fluid build up in eye that results in damage and vision loss
• Macular degeneration: damage to receptors in the fovea that results in blurry vision and the ability to see details.
• Diabetic retinopathy: age related retinal disease and a by-product of diabetes. *Blindness is a severe side effect
• Sensorineural hearing loss: degeneration of receptor cells or the auditory nerve; permanent
• Oldest-old: 85+