CogSoCoAGE Project

Project Description

• Investigate the cognitive mechanisms that underlie healthy ageing and social communication

• Explore promising new protocols to enhance the quality of social communication in older adults (thus improving their mental health and well-being)

• Provide an evidenced-based description of cognitive ageing, to pinpoint when declines begin and improving cognition and overall well-being in older adults

• Assess over 600 members of the public aged 10 to 90 years old with well-being questionnaires and a lengthy cognitive task battery that includes advanced technical research methods (EEG, eye-tracking)

• Visit our website to find out more

Research Questions

1. To what degree can variations in theory of mind ability across the life-span be accounted for by changes in executive function skills?

2. How do theory of mind ability and executive function skills change over time in different age groups (using longitudinal methods, i.e. test-retest of the same participants)?

3. Can theory of mind ability be enhanced through training specific executive function skills, and how do these training effects differ across the life-span?

Project Publications

• Brunsdon, V. E. A., Bradford, E. E. F., & Ferguson, H. (2019). Sensorimotor mu rhythm during action observation changes across the lifespan independently from social cognitive processes. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100659.
  • Here's the link to the paper

The Team

• Professor Heather Ferguson (Grant Holder, Principal Investigator)
• Dr Victoria Brunsdon (Postdoc, 2015-2020)
• Dr Lizzie Bradford (Postdoc, 2016-2019)
• Martina De Lillo (PhD Student, 2016-2020)

Alumni

• Dr Matt Fysh (Postdoc, 2018-2019)
• Many undergraduate and postgraduate researchers!