Dopamine Imaging
Changes in prefrontal cortical structure and function, along with decline in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and decision making are well established features of aging. Loss of nigro-striatal and ventral tegmental-prefrontal dopaminergic neurons are known to occur with advancing age, and dopamine is well established as an important neurotransmitter that mediates these cognitive abilities. Thus, the goal of this project is to relate changes in brain dopamine to age-related decline in a variety of cognitive abilities. We are using a variety of approaches to measuring brain dopamine, and relating changes in brain dopamine to brain activation during a number of different cognitive tasks using fMRI.