Brain health affects Americans across all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities. Enriching the body of scientific knowledge around brain health and cognitive ability has the potential to improve quality of life and longevity for many millions of Americans and their families. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 5 million Americans were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. That same year, more than 800,000 children were treated for concussion or traumatic brain injuries in U.S. emergency departments. Each year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke. Developing more effective treatment strategies for brain injuries and illnesses is essential, but brain health is not focused exclusively on disease, disorders, and vulnerability. It is equally important to better understand the ways our brains grow, learn, adapt, and heal. Addressing all of these domains to optimize brain health will require consideration about how to define brain health and resilience and about how to identify key elements to measure those concepts. Understanding the interactions between the brain, the body, and socioenvironmental forces is also fundamental to improving brain health. To explore issues related to brain health throughout the life span, from birth through old age, a public workshop titled Brain Health Across the Life Span was convened on September 24 and 25, 2019, by the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice in the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

The book focuses on the developmental analysis of the brain-culture-environment dynamic and argues that this dynamic is interactive and reciprocal. Brain and culture co-determine each other. As a whole, this book refutes any unidirectional conception of the brain-culture dynamic. Each is influenced by and modifies the other. To capture the ubiquitous reach and significance of the mutually dependent brain-culture system, the metaphor of biocultural co-constructivism is invoked. Distinguished researchers from cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology and developmental psychology review the evidence in their respective fields. A special focus of the book is its coverage of the entire human lifespan from infancy to old age.

Humans are remarkably resilient in the face of crises, traumas, disabilities, attachment losses and ongoing adversities. To date, most research in the field of traumatic stress has focused on neurobiological, psychological and social factors associated with trauma-related psychopathology and deficits in psychosocial functioning. Far less is known about resilience to stress and healthy adaptation to stress and trauma. This book brings together experts from a broad array of scientific fields whose research has focused on adaptive responses to stress. Each of the five sections in the book examines the relevant concepts, spanning from factors that contribute to and promote resilience, to populations and societal systems in which resilience is employed, to specific applications and contexts of resilience and interventions designed to better enhance resilience. This will be suitable for clinicians and researchers who are interested in resilience across the lifespan and in response to a wide variety of stressors.

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.

Stress and Brain Health: Across the Life Course, Volume 150, examines up-to-date knowledge on how stress effects brain health. The book's wide-ranging topics include the effects of pre-natal and childhood stress on neurodevelopment and aging. Chapters cover What is stress, how to measure it and effects on brain function, Pre-natal effects of stress on brain development and vulnerability, Stress in childhood, sensitive periods and regulatory mechanisms, The impact of childhood poverty on brain health, Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on the brain, Stress, aging and epigenetics, The effects of chronic stress on the prefrontal cortex, Neurobiology of resilience to stress, and more. Comprises diverse evidence from world-leading researchers in each area Provides a readily accessible introduction to the topics covered, including basic guidance on stress theory and measurement Essential reading for those in the fields of neuroscience, psychophysiology, psychoneuroendocrinology, health psychology, developmental psychology, neuro-rehabilitation and clinical research

Brain health affects Americans across all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities. Enriching the body of scientific knowledge around brain health and cognitive ability has the potential to improve quality of life and longevity for many millions of Americans and their families. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 5 million Americans were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. That same year, more than 800,000 children were treated for concussion or traumatic brain injuries in U.S. emergency departments. Each year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke. Developing more effective treatment strategies for brain injuries and illnesses is essential, but brain health is not focused exclusively on disease, disorders, and vulnerability. It is equally important to better understand the ways our brains grow, learn, adapt, and heal. Addressing all of these domains to optimize brain health will require consideration about how to define brain health and resilience and about how to identify key elements to measure those concepts. Understanding the interactions between the brain, the body, and socioenvironmental forces is also fundamental to improving brain health. To explore issues related to brain health throughout the life span, from birth through old age, a public workshop titled Brain Health Across the Life Span was convened on September 24 and 25, 2019, by the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice in the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Accompanying CD-ROM has the text and images from the book in electronic format.