Page 16 - Abacoa Community News - October '22

Page 16, Abacoa

FAU FeAtUres

FAU Seeks Older Participants FAU Schools Awarded $3.1 activities that enhance elementary and secondary schools’
capacity to identify gifted and talented students and meet
For Aging And Memory Study Million U.S. Department Of their unique educational needs.

For more information on FAUS, visit labschools.fau.edu.
By Gisele Galoustian Education Grant
Florida Atlantic University researchers are conducting FAU Kicks Off Fall Virtual
a study to improve public health by providing information By Brittany Sylvestri
about how human memory changes with age – and you can Florida Atlantic University Schools (FAUS) recently was ‘Research In Action’ Series
help. Gaining a better understanding of how aging influences awarded the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education
the ability to form new associations in memory could lead to Program Grant to increase the number of students from By Bethany Alex
improved techniques for presenting new information to older underserved groups, including students with disabilities, Faculty across Florida Atlantic University are rising
people in a way that maximizes opportunities for learning. who apply for and are accepted to FAUS. to meet some of society’s biggest challenges, engaging
The grant, awarded through the U.S. Department of in a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary and collaborative
Education, is worth $3.1 million over five years and will research.
serve to identify, recruit and develop underserved students FAU’s Division of Research is kicking off its fall
for FAUS. It also will go toward Supporting Talent through “Research in Action” virtual talk series on Zoom on
Recruitment, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (STRIDE), Thursdays at 1 p.m., beginning on Sept. 8 until Dec. 1. Each
which will serve 825 unduplicated underserved high school week, participants can listen to experts in their fields as they
students, 75 middle and 180 elementary students, as well as present their latest research and take part in question and
145 teachers over the five-year grant period. answer.
“While A.D. Henderson and FAU High School continues The fall series includes:
to redefine public education in the United States, we are • Sept. 8 – “New Approaches to Combat Alzheimer’s
excited for the opportunity to further evolve our early Disease,” presented by Gregg Fields, Ph.D., executive
college model,” said Joel Herbst, Ed.D, superintendent of director, Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention,
FAUS. “The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students and professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Education Program allows our students, who are often Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Importantly, results from this study also may help underrepresented, to access top-tier education, research and • Sept. 22 – “Supporting Fathers as Caregivers,” presented
researchers to distinguish normal aging from disease social resources at Florida Atlantic University.” by Ashley Rivera, Ph.D., assistant professor, Christine E.
processes such as Alzheimer’s disease, which more FAUS is affiliated with FAU’s College of Education and Lynn College of Nursing
dramatically impacts associative processes in memory. this grant builds on FAUS’ nationally ranked model, FAU • Oct. 6 – “Inspiring the Next Generation of Brainiacs,”
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study is High School – with campuses in Boca Raton and Jupiter – presented by Nicole Baganz, Ph.D., director of community
investigating the effects of aging on the ability to bind together and A.D. Henderson University School, which is built on the engagement and programming, FAU Stiles-Nicholson
the different components of an event into an accurate memory premise of access and affordability. FAUHS and ADHUS Brain Institute, and research assistant professor, biomedical
representation for that event. The study has been designed to equips all students, regardless of financial circumstances, science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying age differences gender or race, with the necessary skills for an ever-evolving • Oct. 20 – “Can AI Detect Early-Stage Brain Disorders?”
in the ability to associate people with their actions, and how job market. presented by Behnaz Ghoraani, Ph.D., associate professor
those mechanisms may differ depending upon whether the The Department of Education’s Javits Gifted and and I-SENSE fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering
events to be remembered and the conditions under which they Talented Students Education Program awarded only 13 and Computer Science, College of Engineering and
are encountered lend themselves to strategic encoding. projects nationwide that support evidence-based research, Computer Science
The study is led by Alan W. Kersten, Ph.D., principal demonstration projects, innovative strategies, and similar • Oct. 27 – “Meet the Creative Mind of James Bond,”
investigator and an associate professor in the Department of presented by Oliver Buckton, Ph.D., professor and chair,
Psychology, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science;
and Julie L. Earles, Ph.D., co-investigator, associate dean of
academic affairs and a professor of psychology, FAU Harriet
L. Wilkes Honors College. Kersten and Earles, members
of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, have been
testing adults age 60 and older, primarily on FAU’s John D.
MacArthur Campus in Jupiter and they are seeking more
participants for the study.
“We are looking at source memory, such as remembering
whether a fact was mentioned by a friend, heard on the news,
or seen on the Internet. This type of memory typically exhibits
greater age-related decline,” said Kersten. “Understanding the
cognitive mechanisms underlying this decline is important to
help older adults keep pace with the information age, where a FAU Features on page 17
wealth of information comes from sources of varying quality.”
The primary focus of this study is on memory for the
sources of actions – specifically, who did what. The ability
to remember these sources of actions is critical to social Need More Storage?
functioning, for example, allowing one to attribute credit to
people who provide help or to assign blame to people who
commit negative actions. WE CAN HELP!
The researchers are examining similarities and differences
in the cognitive mechanisms underlying young and older
adults’ memory for the sources of actions and words. They
have created a set of video stimuli used to study memory for
the sources of actions and are collecting baseline measures
of source memory. They will use the data to explore changes
in memory abilities associated with healthy aging, as well NEW state of the art facility in Jupiter!
as with pathological conditions such as mild cognitive
impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
“We are testing healthy young and older adults on their
memory using a series of these brief video clips we have FIRST *
created, which depict actors performing actions or speaking MONTHFREE!
verbal phrases,” said Kersten. “Study participants also are
given other tests of executive and memory functioning, which
allows us to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying
source memory for actions.” * Certain restrictions apply. Mention or present this offer.
In prior research, Kersten and Earles have shown that
the cognitive mechanisms underlying memory for the
sources of actions may be different from the mechanisms Modern Security Climate-Controlled Secure Car
underlying memory for the sources of verbal information. and Safety Storage Units Storage
Source memory for verbal information has typically
been associated with frontally-mediated executive
functions, such as attentional control, working memory,
and set shifting. In contrast, they found that memory for Store. Pack. Move. 50 Frederick Small Road
the sources of actions was associated with more basic
associative memory mechanisms, likely mediated by And More! Jupiter, FL 33458
medial temporal brain regions.
Adults 60 and older who are interested in participating CompassSelfStorage.com (561) 556-2191
in the study can email eventmemorylab@fau.edu for more
information.