Loreen Mamerow and I spent the past couple of days at an interesting symposium on “Opportunities and Challenges in Cognitive Aging” at the International Academic Forum, in Heidelberg (Organisers: Dr. Markus Wettstein, Dr. Elzbieta Kozma). The symposium included keynotes by Christopher Hertzog, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Sherry Willis, University of Washington, that discussed promises and challenges of intervention programs to improve cognitive function in old age. The field has been very active, with a number of randomised control trials (RCT) emerging in the past years, including those that test the role of physical activity and the use of game-like cognitive tasks, among others. Unfortunately, it looks like the jury is still out about the role of such interventions for cognitive function (e.g., memory) and daily function (e.g., living independently). The promise seems to now lie in RCTs that combine multiple strategies and long-term outcomes – it should prove interesting to take stock of the field in a few more years once the results from these are out…

You can find the Symposiums’ program here.