Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain
In recent years, research on experience-dependent plasticity has provided valuable insight on adaptation to environmental input across the lifespan, and advances in understanding the minute cellular changes underlying the brain’s capacity for self-reorganization have opened exciting new possibilitie...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00219/full |
| _version_ | 1819103755742740480 |
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| author | Constance eHolman Etienne eDe Villers-Sidani |
| author_facet | Constance eHolman Etienne eDe Villers-Sidani |
| author_sort | Constance eHolman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In recent years, research on experience-dependent plasticity has provided valuable insight on adaptation to environmental input across the lifespan, and advances in understanding the minute cellular changes underlying the brain’s capacity for self-reorganization have opened exciting new possibilities for treating illness and injury. Ongoing work in this line of inquiry has also come to deeply influence another field: the cognitive neuroscience of the normal aging. This complex process, once dubbed as inevitable or beyond the reach of treatment, has been transformed into an arena of intense investigation and strategic intervention. However, important questions remain about this characterization of the aging brain, and the assumptions it makes about the social, cultural, and biological space occupied by cognition in the older individual and body. The following paper will provide a critical examination of the move from basic experiments on the neurophysiology of experience-dependent plasticity to the growing market for (and public conception of) cognitive aging as a medicalized space for intervention by neuroscience-backed technologies. Entangled with changing concepts of normality, pathology, and self-preservation, we will argue that this new understanding, led by personalized cognitive training strategies, is approaching a point where interdisciplinary research is crucial to provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of the aging process. This new outlook will allow us to move forward in a space where our knowledge, like our new conception of the brain, is never static. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T01:55:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a2ca5f12714240a4a299258f80f6c4f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T01:55:30Z |
| publishDate | 2014-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-a2ca5f12714240a4a299258f80f6c4f12022-12-21T18:42:47ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612014-04-01810.3389/fnhum.2014.0021981190Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brainConstance eHolman0Etienne eDe Villers-Sidani1Charité UniversitätsmedizinMontreal Neurological Institute, McGill UniversityIn recent years, research on experience-dependent plasticity has provided valuable insight on adaptation to environmental input across the lifespan, and advances in understanding the minute cellular changes underlying the brain’s capacity for self-reorganization have opened exciting new possibilities for treating illness and injury. Ongoing work in this line of inquiry has also come to deeply influence another field: the cognitive neuroscience of the normal aging. This complex process, once dubbed as inevitable or beyond the reach of treatment, has been transformed into an arena of intense investigation and strategic intervention. However, important questions remain about this characterization of the aging brain, and the assumptions it makes about the social, cultural, and biological space occupied by cognition in the older individual and body. The following paper will provide a critical examination of the move from basic experiments on the neurophysiology of experience-dependent plasticity to the growing market for (and public conception of) cognitive aging as a medicalized space for intervention by neuroscience-backed technologies. Entangled with changing concepts of normality, pathology, and self-preservation, we will argue that this new understanding, led by personalized cognitive training strategies, is approaching a point where interdisciplinary research is crucial to provide a holistic and nuanced understanding of the aging process. This new outlook will allow us to move forward in a space where our knowledge, like our new conception of the brain, is never static.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00219/fullAgingplasticitycognitive trainingnormalitycognitive declineneurotechnology |
| spellingShingle | Constance eHolman Etienne eDe Villers-Sidani Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Aging plasticity cognitive training normality cognitive decline neurotechnology |
| title | Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| title_full | Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| title_fullStr | Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| title_short | Indestructible plastic: The neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| title_sort | indestructible plastic the neuroscience of the new aging brain |
| topic | Aging plasticity cognitive training normality cognitive decline neurotechnology |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00219/full |
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