Structure and function of the aging brain

In this opening section of the Aging Brain we set the stage for the contributions that follow by providing a broad overview of the latest advances in our understanding of how the brain changes, both structurally and functionally, across the adult lifespan. We leave domain-specific aspects of brain aging to the subsequent chapters, where contributors will provide more targeted accounts of brain change germane to their particular focus on the aging brain. Here we review the extant, and rapidly expanding literature to provide a brief overview and introduction to structural and functional change that occur with typical brain aging. We begin the chapter by looking back, to review some of the early discoveries about how the brain changes across the adult lifespan. We close the chapter by looking forward, towards new discoveries that challenge our core assumptions about the inevitability or irreversibility of age-related brain changes. These sections serve as bookends for the core of the chapter where we review the latest research advances that continue to uncover the mysteries of the aging brain. Spreng, R.N., Turner, G.R. (2019, forthcoming) Structure and function of the aging brain. In G Samanez-Larkin (Ed.) The aging brain. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.