The conference > Guest Speakers

The guest speakers are: Yaakov STERN, Yannick STEPHAN, Gaël CHETELAT and Derek ISAACOWITZ. The themes and abstracts will be posted on this page as soon as possible.

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Université de Caen, France

Theme: Meditation anc cognitive aging

Abstract: Impact on the brain and potential for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases

While Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) represent a major health and societal issue, there is hope that risk factors for AD - and thus the number of AD cases - can be significantly reduced by lifestyle modifications. Current lifestyle-based non-pharmacological preventive interventions are thus targeting the main risk factors for AD. Yet, psycho-affective risk factors – e.g. depression, stress, anxiety, and feeling of loneliness-, which are all prevalent in ageing, have rarely been directly targeted by preventive clinical trials so far.

Meditation practices recently emerged as a promising mental training to foster brain health and reduce dementia risk. This talk will focus on the latest advances in research on the impact of meditation on the mental health and well-being in ageing populations. We will discuss the research progress of the Medit-Ageing Consortium including 11 Partners in 6 European Countries. The Medit-Ageing (public name: Silver Santé Study) European project (www.silversantestudy.eu ; https://silversantestudy.fr) is the largest to date to tackle the issue of meditation in ageing with two large clinical trials, in patients with subjective clinical decline (SCD-Well study) and in cognitively unimpaired individuals older than 65 years (Age-Well study).

The Medit-Ageing Consortium has proposed a theoretical model that outlines the cumulative impact that practices of mindfulness meditation MM and loving-kindness and compassion meditation LKCM could have on cognition, mental health, lifestyle, and AD risk in the ageing population. The first results from the two clinical trials showed the impact on an 8-week meditation training on anxiety and cognition in 147 SCD patients; and the impact of an 18-month meditation training on regional brain volume and perfusion, composite scores of attention regulation, socio-emotional, and self-knowledge capacities, and cognition, in 137 cognitively unimpaired community-dwelling older individuals. Other analyses are on-going to provide a comprehensive over view of the specific age-related areas which are positively affected by meditation training – including biomarkers, objective and subjective measures of sleep quality, scores of well-being and quality of life, lifestyle, complementary measures of brain integrity, etc. The multiple perspectives opened up by this project and its first results will also be outlined at the end of this conference.  

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Columbia University, USA

Theme: Cognitive reserve and aging

Abstract: Cognitive reserve in aging

The cognitive reserve hypothesis posits that individual differences in the flexibility and adaptability of brain networks underlying cognitive function may allow some people to cope better than others with age- or disease-related brain changes. In the complementary concept of brain maintenance, individual variability in the preservation  of anatomic features of the brain is associated with differential cognitive aging. This talk will review the development and  epidemiologic support for these concepts. The neural limitation of cognitive reserve can be studied with functional imaging approaches. Both resting BOLD and cognitive activation studies will be described. Finally, it will discuss the implications of these concepts for healthy cognitive aging.  

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Université de Montpellier, France

Theme: Personality and cognitive aging

Abstract: Personality and Cognitive Aging: Current Knowledge and Future Perspectives

A growing attention has been directed toward the association between the Five Factor Model Personality traits (McCrae & John, 1992) and cognition aging in the last decade. This presentation aims to provide a summary of current knowledge on the link between these traits and cognitive performance in a range of domains, and with neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, we’ll present recent findings on the behavioral, functional and biological pathways through which personality is related to cognitive aging.

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Northeastern University, USA

Theme: Emotion and cognitive aging

Abstract: Emotion in the study of cognitive aging: Where do we go now?

In this talk, I will present results from several studies from my lab on emotion regulation and emotion perception, showing that there may be substantial age similarities as well as some differences in these emotional processes. Then, I will present recent data comparing age-related positivity effects as typically studied in the lab, to data collected using the same eye tracking techniques in the home environment. Context makes a difference: age-related positivity effects are basically reversed in the home. Then, I will consider why we care about these questions in the context of aging, and will propose a way to reframe questions about the role of emotion in cognitive aging that I believe will help move the field forward productively.

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