"Jennifer Manly, PhD, researches how people’s cultural experiences — especially the quality of their early education — affect their brains as they age.
Manly was intrigued when she saw research data showing that elderly African-Americans and Hispanics exhibited higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease than elderly whites. She launched a research project in the neighborhood near Columbia University, where she works, to study how cultural and educational differences might affect the development and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. “I want to get people into the study who wouldn't normally be researched,” she says. “We go out and see them in their homes. That’s a really cool thing most psychologists don’t do.” The project administers a medical interview followed by standard neuropsychological testing. (...)
Another area Manly is studying is how the literacy level of older people might affect changes in the sharpness of their memory over time. “I found that elders with both high and low levels of literacy declined in immediate and delayed memory over time,” she says. “However, the decline was more rapid among low literacy elders.” This suggests that high literacy skills don’t provide complete preservation of memory skills but rather help slow age-related decline."
You may find the whole article in here.
Source: apa.org/action/careers/improve-lives/jennifer-manly
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