Aging is associated with subtle declines in some cognitive functions, but not others. As we age, we tend to become a little more forgetful, we get distracted more easily, and we can’t process information quite as quickly.

At the same time, verbal knowledge and what’s sometimes called wisdom tend to remain stable and may even improve with age. Why is that? This talk will explain what happens to our brains as we age, how those changes might relate to age-related cognitive declines, and what we can do to help our brains age more gracefully.

Speaker Thad Polk is the Samuel D. Epstein Collegiate Professor of Psychology and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. He received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Computer Science and Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Polk’s research uses functional imaging of the human brain to investigate the neural architecture underlying cognition and how that architecture is influenced by age, by experience, and by genetics. He has lectured extensively on topics related to the human brain, including producing four courses for The Great Courses series. He was also named to the Princeton Review list of the best 300 professors in the U.S.

Preregistration is required via the OLLI website or phone. A link to access the presentation will be e-mailed to you approximately one week prior to the event