Lecture: Arthur F. Kramer

We invite you to attend the Horizons of Knowledge Lecture sponsored by the Speech and Hearing Sciences PhD Organization, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Cognitive Science Program, School of HPER, Speech Research Laboratory, and Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory.

Date: April 6, 2009
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Place: Woodburn Hall, Room 120

Dr. Arthur F. Kramer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology: Human Perception and Performance, will present, "Enhancing Cognitive & Brain Function of Older Adults."

Abstract:
The presentation will provide a brief but critical review of the literature on the relationship of cognitive training, intellectual engagement, and fitness training on cognition and brain function of older adults. In the presentation I will contrast the effects of cognitive and fitness training with regard to the breadth of their effects on cognition and dementia. The presentation will include a description of the results of a recent meta-analysis, which included longitudinal fitness studies conducted over the past thirty-five years that were conducted to examine the methodological and theoretical factors that influence the fitness-cognition relationship. This analysis revealed robust benefits of fitness training on neurocognitive function. I will also describe the results of recent and on-going cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in which we are examining changes in cognition and brain function, as indexed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related brain potentials, with fitness and cognitive training interventions. I will conclude by describing issues for future research and potential applications of what we have already learned, as well as what we still need to learn.