This chapter discusses some of the current trends and promising future directions in the field of cognitive neuroscience of aging. The chapter first discusses recent research investigating the contribution of individual difference factors related to identify, including race, culture, and sex differences. Next, the chapter reviews recent research on neuromodulation, including ways in which noninvasive brain stimulation (e.g., repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation [rTMS], transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS], and transcranial alternating current stimulation [tACS]) has been used in an attempt to enhance cognition with age as well as with age-related disorders. This section also considers other approaches to neuromodulation, including deep-brain stimulation and neurofeedback. Finally, discussion of emerging directions considers the importance of investigating aging across the lifespan, studying the intersection of physical health with cognition, exploring the distinction of socioemotional and cognitive domains, and emphasizing the contribution of context with age.

This chapter considers the changes that occur with age-related disorders. For Alzheimer’s disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment, the chapter reviews structural changes that occur in the brain and then turns to functional changes. These include coverage of changes related to memory and cognition, attention, and self and emotion. Next, neuroimaging research on amyloid and tau are reviewed, and some literature on relevant genes is discussed. The chapter then reviews literature on other age-related neurodegenerative diseases, considering effects on cognitive and social functions. These include Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, frontotemporal dementias (including progressive nonfluent aphasia, semantic dementia, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

This chapter reviews findings about the effects of aging on memory. Coverage includes working memory, encompassing processes such as refreshing and inhibition, as well as explicit and implicit long-term memory, and prospective memory. Within the topic of explicit long-term memory, specific topics include the levels of processing framework, subsequent memory paradigms, recollection, source memory, associative memory and binding, semantic memory, false memory, autobiographical memory, memory and future thinking, reactivation, controlled processes in long-term memory, event boundaries, and pattern separation.

This chapter reviews changes to cognition with age. This includes sections on attention, executive function, motor control, and language. After reviewing cognitive aging and these basic cognitive functions, the chapter considers the burgeoning literature on training cognitive ability with age. This section includes review of intervention programs focused on physical activity, mediation and mediation, cognitive activities, working memory training, and long-term memory training.

This chapter reviews research on social cognition and age. This covers self-focused processes, including self-referencing and memory as well as own-age bias and stereotype threat and stigma. Processes focused on other people are also reviewed, including moral judgment, empathy, theory of mind, social interactions and impression formation, memory for impressions, and trust.

This chapter reviews findings about the structural changes to the brain, considering effects on both gray matter and white matter and relationships between these measures and behavior. It also reviews research on changes with age to the connectivity of the brain and the default mode network. Findings related to effects of aging on perception and sensation as well as neurotransmitters are presented. The chapter ends with extensive coverage of individual difference factors, including genetic influences, intelligence, cognitive reserve, bilingualism, personality, and stress.

This chapter reviews theories of cognitive aging, considering how those classic theories intersect with those informed by cognitive neuroscience methods. The chapter also reviews cognitive neuroscience methods, reviewing methods to study the structural integrity of the brain as well as those used to investigate brain function or the ways in which multiple measures can be combined. The chapter ends with discussion of recent methodological advances, including multivariate analysis methods and the study of beta-amyloid and tau.

This chapter reviews research on the effects of age on emotion as well as decision making. After reviewing the neural regions involved in emotion, the chapter delves into the topics of emotion identification, emotion regulation, life satisfaction, socioemotional selectivity theory, and emotion and memory. Turning to the research on decision making and reward, the chapter considers how age affects brain activity during tasks involving reward, economic decisions, and gambling. It also discusses economic decision making in a social context and future directions in motivation research.