Cognitive Aging » McKnight Brain Institute

Cognitive aging is a natural process in which older adults typically experience decline in many functions, such as memory, that can negatively impact their quality of life. With healthier lifestyles and advances in medical science, the human lifespan has almost doubled in the past century. However, improvements in physical health at advanced ages have outpaced our ability to maintain brain functions that support cognition and memory.

Research at the MBI

At the MBI, interdisciplinary teams of researchers are working to speed the progress towards identifying the brain mechanisms that slow age-associated cognitive decline and translate these pre-clinical discoveries into interventions that preserve cognition in older adults.

Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research (CAM Center)

Supported by the McKnight Brain Research Foundation and the National Institute on Aging, the CAM Center brings together UF faculty and trainees with diverse expertise in the neurobiology of aging, neuroplasticity, neuroimaging, systems and cellular neuroscience, physiology and behavior. The center is dedicated to understanding fundamental mechanisms of brain aging and cognition and conducting leading-edge interdisciplinary clinical neuroscience that together will improve the quality of lives for older adults.

Ron A. Cohen, Ph.D., ABPP, ABCN, holds the endowed Evelyn F. McKnight Chair for Clinical Translational Research in Cognitive Aging and Thomas C. Foster, Ph.D., holds the Evelyn F. McKnight Chair for Research on Cognitive Aging and Memory.