Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
Neuropsychol Rev. 2009 Dec;19(4):411-4. doi: 10.1007/s11065-009-9122-1.
Age-related cognitive declines are common and inevitable, but life trajectories of brain and cognitive functions are variable and plastic. To identify the mechanisms of decline, the prospects for improvement, and the constraints on the remedial approaches, the contributors of this special issuer examine several diverse areas of cognitive and brain aging: from structural and metabolic brain aging to genetics, and from age-sensitive cognitive domains to those that resist aging. In spite of such thematic diversity, several common threads are clear. To achieve better compensation for age-related changes in cognition, we need to understand their brain substrates, telling cognitively relevant from epiphenomenal. We also need to understand the sources of profound individual variability in aging trajectories, and to learn to tailor interventions to specific individual profiles of decline.
与年龄相关的认知能力下降是普遍且不可避免的，但大脑和认知功能的发展轨迹是多样且具有可塑性的。为了确定下降的机制、改善的前景以及补救方法的限制，本期特刊的撰稿人研究了认知和大脑衰老的几个不同领域：从结构和代谢性大脑衰老到遗传学，从对年龄敏感的认知领域到抵抗衰老的认知领域。尽管存在这种主题多样性，但有几个共同的线索是清晰的。为了更好地补偿与年龄相关的认知变化，我们需要了解其大脑基础，区分与认知相关的和无关的现象。我们还需要了解衰老轨迹中个体间巨大差异的来源，并学会根据个体下降的具体情况进行干预。
