Geriatric neuropsychology: implications for front line clinicians.

Consistent with the aging population, neuropsychologists are being asked with increased frequency to evaluate older adults. These assessments are often complicated by medical and psychiatric co-morbidities, polypharmacy, and complex psychosocial and legal issues that are frequently encountered in this population. The aim of this review article is to address the challenges neuropsychologists and other frontline clinicians often confront when evaluating older individuals.

Memory enhancement in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based training program: a randomized, controlled study.

Normal aging is associated with progressive functional losses in perception, cognition, and memory. Although the root causes of age-related cognitive decline are incompletely understood, psychophysical and neuropsychological evidence suggests that a significant contribution stems from poorer signal-to-noise conditions and down-regulated neuromodulatory system function in older brains. Because the brain retains a lifelong capacity for plasticity and adaptive reorganization, dimensions of negative reorganization should be at least partially reversible through the use of an appropriately designed training program.