2016 |
Overman, Amy A |
R15Activity Code Description: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the program are to (1) support meritorious research, (2) expose students to research, and (3) strengthen the research environment of the institution. Awards provide limited Direct Costs, plus applicable F&A costs, for periods not to exceed 36 months. This activity code uses multi-year funding authority; however, OER approval is NOT needed prior to an IC using this activity code. |
Elucidating Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms to Enhance Associative Memory in Younger and Older Adults
? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The population of older adults is steadily growing, and there is an urgent need to understand the basis of older adults' impairment in the ability to link together multiple pieces of information (associative memory), which is critical for everyday memory function. Aging theory has suggested that older adults suffer from a global decline in the ability to form associative memories while theories of associative memory based on young adult data suggest that associative memory itself is supported by multiple cognitive processes. These two theories have not been integrated and tested together in an aging population. The long-term goal of this research is to gain a substantial understanding of associative memory mechanisms in older adults so that therapeutic intervention strategies for memory can be developed. The objective of this application is to integrate two theories of associative memory in order to better understand the mechanisms of age-related changes in associative memory function. The overarching hypothesis is that young and older adults rely on similar functional organization among MTL subregions, but that hippocampal decline in older adults results in a shift toward greater contributions by MTL cortical areas in successful formation of associations. This hypothesis is formulated based on studies in young adults that have found that the hippocampus is broadly involved in the formation of associations, whereas the perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices are selectively involved in particular types of associations. Importantly, the involvement of perirhinal cortex in associative encoding also depends on the extent to which a task encourages unitization, which suggests that the degree of engagement of MTL structures can be modulated through the use of encoding strategies. The rationale for the proposed research is that, by extending the current work regarding associative memory in young adults to aging, we will have a clearer idea of how subregions of the MTL support associative encoding across the lifespan. Novel fMRI studies are proposed to: 1) Test the neural basis of the Associative Deficit Hypothesis and expand the Binding of Item and Context Model to aging and 2) Investigate the role of unitization in successful encoding of both item-item and item- context associations in healthy older adults. The approach is innovative because it directly tests the neural mechanisms underlying two prominent theories of associative memory in older adults, as well as examining means by which to ameliorate age-related deficits in associative memory. A novel paradigm will be used that combines manipulations of both association type and encoding strategy to elucidate the neural substrates of associative memory within the MTL of older adults. The proposed research is significant because it is the first critical step toward unified explanation of how age differences in associative memory are related to the functional organization of the MTL. This research has the potential to lead to improvements in older adult memory function and quality of life through the development of intervention strategies for memory and by helping to dissociate normal aging from early signs of dementia.
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2020 — 2022 |
Overman, Amy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Satc: Core: Small: Tracking User Behavior, Cognitive Burdens, and the Impact of Behavioral Nudging On Security Updates by Young and Older Adults
Computer security significantly depends on user behaviors, including choices about whether and when to apply software updates. Many security problems, including high-profile data breaches, are caused by failure to update vulnerable software, even after security issues are known and patches are available. In order to make computing more secure, there is a need to better understand the decision-making processes of users regarding their choices to apply, delay, or ignore security-related software updates. For example, how are decisions about software updates affected by other tasks the user is currently performing? How is the decision-making process different for users who are older adults versus users who are young adults? This project seeks to answer these questions with experiments that place young and older adult users in a variety of security-related software updating situations to test specific theories of how task-related factors and cognitive aging influence behavior. The research team includes computer scientists and cognitive psychologists, and will innovatively combine knowledge from these two areas. The project serves the national interest both by advancing scientific knowledge of decision making processes, and how that knowledge may be applied to promote public welfare through increased computing security.
The project uses multiple, complementary methods to increase understanding of cybersecurity behaviors of non-expert users in personal computing environments, including: systematic evaluation of the security update ecosystem to identify factors that may affect cybersecurity behaviors; surveying non-expert users to measure attitudes and expected behaviors in response to various software update scenarios; development and field testing of specific software update scenarios in personal computing environments; and development and testing of behavioral nudge interventions hypothesized to increase compliance with security-related software updating. These methods are employed to test the efficacy of protection motivation theory, cognitive load theory, and locus of control theory in the cybersecurity domain, and the results will contribute to the development of efficacious security-related software update strategies.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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0.915 |
2020 |
Overman, Amy A |
R15Activity Code Description: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the program are to (1) support meritorious research, (2) expose students to research, and (3) strengthen the research environment of the institution. Awards provide limited Direct Costs, plus applicable F&A costs, for periods not to exceed 36 months. This activity code uses multi-year funding authority; however, OER approval is NOT needed prior to an IC using this activity code. |
Investigating Age-Related Differences in Cognitive and Neural Representations in Associative Memory
Older adult memory is vulnerable to an associative deficit ? a decline in the ability to link together multiple pieces of information. This has implications for many aspects of cognitive functioning in everyday life, such as remembering to take medicine at a certain time of day. However, not enough is known about the neural bases of the associative deficit. For example, how does the associative deficit fit into broader theories of the functional organization of memory networks in the human brain, and how is the associative deficit linked to age-related changes in neural representations of information? The long-term goal of the proposed research is to gain understanding of associative memory mechanisms in aging so that beneficial intervention strategies for memory can be developed for use with older adults. The objective of the current research is to test whether specific age- related differences in associative memory can be accounted for by differences in neural specificity and functional connectivity in posterior-medial and anterior-temporal cortico-hippocampal networks. The overarching hypothesis is that the associative deficit depends on the degree to which neural specificity and functional connectivity each contribute to a task. The rationale for the proposed research is that investigating age-related differences in neural representations and functional connectivity in associative memory will lead to a more robust theory of the associative deficit, and will enable the development of methods for presenting information to older adults in ways that reduce age differences in associative memory. Innovative fMRI experiments are proposed that will: 1) Examine how encoding of new associations is affected by age differences in reactivation and processing of prior associations and in the dynamics of cortico-hippocampal networks; and 2) Investigate how dedifferentiation in perceptual regions contributes to age differences in the encoding and retrieval of associations within cortico-hippocampal networks for memory. The approach is innovative because the planned experiments will combine novel experimental designs with advanced fMRI analysis methods to bridge the gap between cognitive theories of the associative deficit and underlying neural differences between young and older adults. The proposed research is significant because results of the studies will generate new insights in scientific understanding of the neural bases of the associative deficit. This work represents a critical step toward a unified explanation of associative memory deficits in aging. It will advance the field of aging and memory as well as enable the development of interventions, such as more effective means of presenting information, that may improve information representations in associative memory, thereby improving health and quality of life.
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