Memory researcher Jennifer Lynn Bizon, Ph.D., is keenly aware that people’s brains age differently.
In her life, she watched as one of her grandmothers coped with worsening dementia for 12 years. Yet she saw how her other grandmother remained sharp even at age 87, polishing off crossword puzzles that were beyond the reach of much younger people.
Even today, the question of how two people who were so much alike could age so differently still influences her thinking. A neuroscientist at the UF College of Medicine supported by the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, Bizon works to understand the biological and environmental factors that distinguish people who age successfully and maintain strong memory function.