# NEUROIMAGING OF AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE CHANGES

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 1993 · $270,976

## Abstract

The goal of the present project is to use neuroimaging methods,
specifically positron emission tomography (PET), to clarify the neural
mechanisms mediating age-related cognitive changes in healthy older
adults.  In each of three experiments, 40 young and 40 older adult men
will receive a neurological exam, and psychometric and cognitive testing.
Within each age group, 25 subjects will receive a magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) scan.  PET testing will be scheduled for 12-13 subjects per
age group, based on exclusionary criteria established for the
psychometric testing and MRI scan.  The PET assessments will use a high
resolution tomograph, MRI-registered images, and arterial blood samples.
Each subject's PET study will involve six 15O-water scans separated by
15-min intervals.  Four of those scans will be activation scans in which
subjects view a series of stimuli presented on a computer monitor and
make a choice response during the PET scan.  Two of the scans will be
control conditions.  The data of primary interest will be the pattern of
change in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), across task conditions,
as a function of age group.  Both region-of-interest and exploratory
(e.g., statistical parametric mapping) analyses will be conducted.
Experiment 1 will examine the discrimination of visually presented words
and nonwords.  It is expected that an age-related decline in rCBF will
be most evident, in areas of striate and extrastriate cortex, when there
is a pronounced feature-extraction component to the word identification
task.  Experiment 2 will investigate memory encoding and retrieval of
visually presented word lists.  The prediction is that an age-related
decline in rCBF in areas of medial temporal and frontal cortex will be
evident when either encoding or retrieval demands are high.  Experiment
3 will examine divided and selective attention processes in the context
of a visual search task.  It is predicted that the requirement to engage
divided attention processes will be associated with an age-related
decline in rCBF in areas of frontal cortex (e.g., anterior cingulate).
The experiments proposed in the present application are designed to
provide new information regarding the functional neuroanatomy of age-
related change is necessary if improved methods are to be developed for
identifying neuropathological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3123524
- **Project number:** 1R01AG011622-01
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** TP7EK8DZV6N5
- **Principal Investigator:** David J. Madden
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $270,976
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1993-09-30 → 1996-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3123524

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3123524, NEUROIMAGING OF AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE CHANGES (1R01AG011622-01). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3123524. Licensed CC0.

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