The Aging Mind: Opportunities in Cognitive Research

Excerpt

In 1999, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Research Council to identify areas of opportunity in which additional research support would substantially improve understanding of cognitive functioning in aging. The Committee on Future Directions for Cognitive Research on Aging was formed to identify highly promising opportunities in behavioral science, cognitive science, and neuroscience and at the conjunctions of these fields.

We sought particularly to identify research opportunities that would link behavioral science, cognitive science, and neuroscience approaches to cognition and aging in new ways. Thus, in identifying areas of possible research opportunity, we considered the following issues: (1) Does the research directly address or have clear potential applications to cognitive function in aging? (2) Can the research improve understanding of cognition and aging by drawing on recent developments in behavioral science, cognitive science, and neuroscience that are not yet fully applied in this area? (3) Will the research open new possibilities to link these different approaches to cognition and aging? (4) Will the research lead to fundamentally new and promising directions for investigation, as well as adding to existing knowledge? (5) Does research progress depend on developing infrastructure, such as new technology or datasets?