Memory loss can seem like an inevitable part of aging, but Karen Campbell disagrees.

The Associate Professor of Psychology says forgetfulness is more related to a loss of attentional control than age-related deterioration of memory centres in the brain. Campbell, a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging, will be discussing her research and ways to boost memory and manage attentional control at a free public webinar on Tuesday, April 30 from noon to 1 p.m.

Campbell is Director of Brock University’s Neurocognitive Aging Lab, which focuses on the cognitive and neural changes that accompany normal human aging. Her research reveals older adults take in more information than their younger counterparts.

“Older adults are worse at focusing their attention, which leads to more distracting information being encoded into memory,” says Campbell. “This gets in the way of what you want to remember.”

Focusing on the task at hand can become more challenging for older adults as they sift through various facts, images, thoughts and other sources of stimulation.

“Trying to connect too many unrelated things can lead to memory errors,” Campbell says.

Older adults are also less able to connect specific information to a particular physical location or context, with events blurring together in their long-term memory, says Campbell.

Campbell’s presentation is the inaugural webinar of the new Research Enterprise Speaker Series, which is designed to connect the community with research happening at Brock.

Other areas Campbell will cover in her presentation include:

• The time of day when attentional control is at its peak.
• The impact of sleep on attentional control.
• The role of exercise in maintaining brain structure and function.
• The importance of older adults getting their hearing tested.

Registration is required to access the webinar. Questions about this event or future presentations can be sent to the Research Impact Unit at kmb@brocku.ca