Leveraging Moment-to-Moment Brain Signal Variability in the Examination of Human Aging and Cognition

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Date 03.07.2013
Hour 10:1511:15
Speaker Douglas D. Garrett, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin (D)
Bio: M.A./Ph.D. Psychology, 2005 - 2011
    ✦Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging
    ✦Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, & Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON

B.A. (Honours) Psychology, 1998 - 2003
    ✦Honours, Co-Op, with Distinction
    ✦Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
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Category Conferences - Seminars
Neuroscientists have long observed that brain activity is naturally variable from moment-to-moment, yet neuroimaging research has rarely considered signal variability as a within-person measure of interest. Our fMRI work on younger and older adults suggests that within-person BOLD signal variability offers highly predictive, complementary, and even orthogonal views of brain function compared to traditional mean-based measures. In particular, we continue to find that older, poorer performing adult brains often exhibit less signal variability, within and across brain regions and tasks. Accordingly, I will discuss the idea that contrary to traditional theoretical expectations of adult-developmental increases in "neural noise," brain aging could instead be re-conceived of as a generalized process of increasing system rigidity and loss of dynamic range.

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  • Informed public
  • Free
  • This event is internal

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fMRI Aging Cognition Moment-to-Moment Brain Signal Variability

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