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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Psychology

Postgraduate Course: Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology (PSYL11048)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis course will provide an introduction to Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology. In cognitive ageing individual differences and experimental psychology approaches will be included. A wide range of determinants of cognitive ageing will be considered, informed by genetic and brain imaging studies and including medical, lifestyle and social effects. Relevant animal model studies are considered. Cognitive epidemiology addresses the association between early life intelligence and morbidity and mortality.
Course description Topics included are:

Week 1
Course overview and cognitive ageing from an individual differences approach

Week 2
Human cognitive ageing: Experimental and applied research

Week 3
Methodological underpinnings of the work in cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology

Week 4
Mechanisms of cognitive ageing: human/translation work and animal models

Week 5
Cognitive epidemiology
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. demonstrate an advanced understanding of the phenomena of cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology
  2. critically evaluate studies examining the determinants of cognitive ageing in humans and animals
  3. critically evaluate studies in the field of cognitive epidemiology
  4. understand and apply the research methods of psychology (including individual differences and experimental psychology) and epidemiology to cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology
  5. consider pursuing a topic in cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology in more detail for the course essay
Reading List
Barulli, D., & Stern, Y. (2013). Efficiency, capacity, compensation, maintenance, plasticity: emerging concepts in cognitive reserve. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 502-509.

Deary, I.J. (2014). The stability of intelligence from childhood to old age. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 239-245.

Deary, I.J. (2013). Intelligence. Current Biology, 23, R673-R676.

Deary, I.J., Corley, J., Gow, A.J., Harris, S.E., Houlihan, L.M., Marioni, R.E., Penke, L., Rafnsson, S.B., & Starr, J.M. (2009). Age-associated cognitive decline. British Medical Bulletin, 92, 135-152.

Hedden, T., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2004) Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 87-96.

Plassman, B.L., Williams, J.W., Burke, J.R., Holsinger, T., & Benjamin, S. (2010). Systematic review: factors associated with risk for and possible prevention of cognitive decline in later life. Annals of Internal Medicine, 153, 182-193.

Salthouse, T.A. (2004). Localizing age-related individual differences in a hierarchical structure. Intelligence, 32, 541-561.

Salthouse, T.A. (2010). Major Issues in Cognitive Ageing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Especially chapter 1).

Salthouse, T. A. (2014). Why are there different age relations in cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of cognitive functioning? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 252-256.

Wilson, R.S. (2002). Individual differences in rates of change in cognitive abilities of older persons. Psychology and Aging, 17, 179-193.

Craik, F. I. M., & Bialystok, E. (2006). Planning and task management in older adults: cooking breakfast. Memory and Cognition, 34(6), 1236-1249.

Johnson, W., Logie, R.H. & Brockmole, J.R. (2010). Working Memory Tasks Differ in Factor Structure Across Age Cohorts: Implications for Dedifferentiation. Intelligence, 38, 513-528.

Logie, R.H. (2011). The functional organisation and the capacity limits of working memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 240-245.

Logie, R.H. & Maylor, E.A. (2009). An internet study of prospective memory across adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 24(3), 767-774.

Kaschel, R., Logie, R.H., Kazén, M & Della Sala, S. (2009). Alzheimer's disease, but not ageing or chronic depression, affects dual-tasking. Journal of Neurology, 256, 1860-1868.

McGurn, B., Starr, J.M., Topfer, J.A., Pattie, A., Whiteman, M.C., Lemmon, H.A., Whalley, L.J., & Deary, I.J. (2004). Pronunciation of irregular words is preserved in dementia, validating premorbid IQ estimation. Neurology, 62, 1184-1186.

Starr, J.M., & Lonie, J. (2007). Relationship between behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and cognition in Alzheimer disease. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 24, 343-347.

Starr, J.M., & Lonie, J. (2008). Estimates of pre-morbid IQ effects on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer disease: a longitudinal study in a treated cohort. BMC Psychiatry, 8, 27.

Plomin R, Deary IJ. (2015) Genetics and intelligence differences: five special findings. Mol Psychiatry. 20, 98-108.

Payton, A. (2009). The Impact of Genetic Research on our Understanding of Normal Cognitive Ageing: 1995 to 2009. Neuropsychological Review, 19, 451-477. doi: 10.1007/s11065-009-9116-z.

Harris, S. E., & Deary I. J. (2011). The genetics of cognitive ability and cognitive ageing in healthy older people. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 388-394. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.07.004.

Davies, G., Harris, S. E., Reynolds, C. A., Payton, A., Knight, H. M., Liewald, D. C., Lopez, L. M., Luciano, M., Gow, A. J., Corley, J., Henderson, R., Murray, C., Pattie, A., Fox, H. C., Redmond, P., Lutz, M. W., Chiba-Falek, O., Linnertz, C., Saith, S., Haggarty, P., McNeill, G., Ke, X., Ollier, W., Horan, M., Roses, A. D., Ponting, C. P., Porteous, D. J., Tenesa, A., Pickles, A., Starr, J. M., Whalley, L. J., Pedersen, N. L., Pendleton, N., Visscher, P. M., & Deary, I. J. (2014). A genome-wide association study implicates the APOE locus in nonpathological cognitive ageing. Molecular Psychiatry, 19(1), 76-87. doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.159.

Davies, G. et al (2015). Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53949). Molecular Psychiatry, 20(2), 183-192. doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.188.

Hagenaars et al. (2016). Shared genetic aetiology between cognitive functions and physical and mental health in UK Biobank (N=112-151) and 24 GWAS consortia. Molecular Psychiatry. 21(11), 1624-1632. doi: 10.1038/mp.2015.225.

Cox, S. R., Ritchie, S. J., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Liewald, D. C., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., ... & Deary, I. J. (2016). Ageing and brain white matter structure in 3,513 UK Biobank participants. Nature Communications, 7, 13629.

Kievit, R. A., Davis, S. W., Mitchell, D. J., Taylor, J. R., Duncan, J., Henson, R. N., & Cam-CAN Research team. (2014). Distinct aspects of frontal lobe structure mediate age-related differences in fluid intelligence and multitasking. Nature Communications, 5, 5658.

Salthouse, T. A. (2011). Neuroanatomical substrates of age-related cognitive decline. Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 753.

Cape, E., Hall, R. J., van Munster, B. C., de Vries, A., Howie, S. E., Pearson, A., Middleton, S. D., Gillies, F., Armstrong, I. R., White, T. O., Cunningham, C., de Rooij, S. E., & MacLullich, A. M. (2014). Cerebrospinal fluid markers of neuroinflammation in delirium: A role for interleukin-1- in delirium after hip fracture. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 77(3), 219-225.

Davis, D. H., Muniz Terrera, G., Keage, H., Rahkonen, T., Oinas, M., Matthews, F. E., Cunningham, C., Polvikoski, T., Sulkava, R., MacLullich, A. M., & Brayne, C. (2012). Delirium is a strong risk factor for dementia in the oldest-old: a population-based cohort study. Brain, 135(9), 2809-16.

MacLullich, A. M., Anand, A., Davis, D. H., Jackson, T., Barugh, A. J., Hall, R. J., Ferguson, K. J., Meagher, D. J., & Cunningham, C. (2013). New horizons in the pathogenesis, assessment and management of delirium. Age Ageing, 42(6), 667-74. (Review)

Inouye, S. K., Westendorp, R. G., & Saczynski, J. S. (2014). Delirium in elderly people. Lancet, 383(9920), 911-22. (Review)

Herbert, J., Goodyer, I. M., Grossman, A. B., Hastings, M. H., de Kloet, E. R., Lightman, S. L., Lupien, S. J., Roozendaal, B., & Seckl, J. R. (2006). Do corticosteroids damage the brain? Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 18, 393-411.

Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434-445.

Sooy, K., Webster, S. P., Noble, J., Binnie, M., Walker, B. R., Seckl, J. R., & Yau, J. L. W. (2010). Partial deficiency or short-term inhibition of 11-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 improves cognitive function in ageing mice. Journal of Neurosci 30, 13867 - 13872.

Yau, J. L., & Seckl, J. R. (20120. Local amplification of glucocorticoids in the aging brain and impaired spatial memory. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 4, 24.

Deary, I.J., & Batty, G.D. (2007). Cognitive epidemiology: a glossary of terms. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61, 378-84.

Calvin, C.M., Deary, I.J., Fenton, C., Roberts, B.A., Der, G., Leckenby, N., Batty, G.D. (2011). Intelligence in youth and all-cause-mortality: systematic review with meta-analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 40 (3), 626-644.

Batty, G.D., Shipley, M., Mortensen, L., Boyle, S., Barefoot, J., Gronbaek, M., Gale, C., & Deary, I.J. (2008). IQ in late adolescence/early adulthood, risk factors in middle-age, and later all-cause mortality in men: the Vietnam Experience Study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62, 522-31.

Batty, G. D., Wennerstad, K. M. et al. (2009) IQ in early adulthood and mortality by middle age: cohort study of 1 million Swedish men. Epidemiology, 20,100-109.

Der, G., Batty, G. D., & Deary, I. J.(2009) The association between IQ in adolescence and a range of health outcomes at 40 in the 1979 US National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Intelligence, 37, 573-580.

Batty, G. D., Gale, C. R., Tynelius, P., Deary, I. J., & Rasmussen, F. (2009) IQ in early adulthood, socioeconomic position, and unintentional injury mortality by middle age: a cohort study of more than 1 million Swedish men. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169, 606-15.

Gale, C. R., Batty, G. D., Tynelius, P., Deary, I. J., & Rasmussen, F. (2010) Intelligence in early adulthood and subsequent hospitalization for mental disorders. Epidemiology, 21, 70-77.

Koenen, K. C., Moffitt, T. E., Roberts, A. L., Martin, L. T., Kubzansky, L., Harrington, H., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2009) Childhood IQ and adult mental disorders: a test of the cognitive reserve hypothesis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 50-57
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Additional Class Delivery Information Attend all lectures as scheduled
KeywordsIntelligence,Memory,Ageing,Epidemiology,Individual differences,Information processing,Neuroend
Contacts
Course organiserDr Andrew McIntosh
Tel: (0131) 537 6274
Email: andrew.mcintosh@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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