While engaged in a physical task requiring effort, such as driving a car or carrying grocery bags, older adults are more likely than younger adults to be distracted by items irrelevant to the task at hand, a University of California, Riverside, study reports. The study assessed the interaction between physical exertion and short-term memory performance when distractors were present or absent in younger and older adults. 

A set of recent studies demonstrates for the first time that learning multiple new tasks carries benefits for cognition long after the learning has been completed. The finding affirms a long-held assertion of the lead researcher, Rachel Wu, who is an associate professor of psychology at UC Riverside. That is, older adults can learn new tasks and improve their cognition in the process, if they approach learning as a child does.

UC Riverside study is part of a larger landmark study tracking older adults

UC Riverside scientists will use a $2 million NIH grant to study the brain’s locus coeruleus

UC Riverside psychologist Chandra Reynolds will lead the five-year research project

UC Riverside-led study evaluated individual differences in DNA methylation across 10 years in two Scandinavian samples of same‐sex aging twins

  For fast access to experts, email news@ucr.edu  Aging   Ilana Bennett: Assistant professor of psychology. Effects of healthy aging and dementia on the brain and cognition; learning and memory in aging; neuroimaging markers of aging. Ilana.bennett@ucr.edu Brandon Brown: Associate professor, Center for Healthy Communities: HIV and aging. brandon.brown@medsch.ucr.edu

A gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease may impact cognitive health much sooner than previously realized. The APOE gene creates a protein, apolipoprotein E, which packages cholesterol and other fats to transport them through the bloodstream. There are three versions, or alleles, of APOE. One of those is the APOE4 allele, present in about 15% of the population. APOE4 carriers are up to three times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which occurs in people 65 and older.