ABSTRACT
The nature of changes in memory functioning that occur in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) subjects as compared to elderly normal subjects, and in elderly as compared to young normal subjects, has captured the attention of hundreds of researchers since the 1980s. From year to year, one can see not only marked increases in the volume of published material on cognition in normal and abnormal aging, but also increases in the specificity of the cognitive models being evaluated and in the degree to which the research draws upon the neurosciences as well as on cognitive psychology. As we learn more about changes in brain structure and function that can occur in normal aging, and brain pathology specific to AD, the construction of a cognitive neuroscience of normal and abnormal aging is becoming a reality.
