Aging Gracefully Lab
in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Carolina
Aging Gracefully Lab Director Dr. Neils-Strunjas Puts Spotlight on Dementia Prevention
Click here to read her featured interview and learn more about how small, achievable changes today can make BIG changes on cognitive health tomorrow, including:
- Social engagement
- Staying physically active
- Practicing mindful meditation
- Taking care of our hearing
- …and more!
2024 ASHA Convention Visionary Session Awarded
The Relationship Between Age-Related Hearing Loss, Phonological Working Memory, and Cognitive Decline
Learning outcomes:
- Analyze a proposed model of the interrelationship of hearing, cognition, social isolation and brain health
- Identify the associations between ARHL and cognitive decline through peripheral hearing sensitivity,
phonological working memory, and word recognition in noise - Discuss how the assessment of phonological working memory can be combined with audiometric hearing test and words in noise recognition test for clinical assessment of ARHL and cognitive decline
Authors
Jean Neils-Strunjas, Sarah Newman-Norlund, Julius Fridriksson, Leonardo Bonilha
2023 ASHA Convention Changemaker Session Awarded
THE RELATIONSHIP OF HEARING LOSS, COGNITION, SOCIAL ISOLATION, AND THE BRAIN IMAGING
Learning outcomes:
- Compare models of hearing loss and aging
- Analyze a proposed model of the interrelationship of hearing, cognition, social isolation and brain health
- Plan related research projects
Authors
MEISAM ARJMANDI, JEAN NEILS-STRUNJAS, SAMANEH NEMATI, ROGER NEWMAN-NORLUND, SARAH NEWMAN-NORLUND
Our Focus
The Aging Gracefully Lab focuses on how exercise and social engagement improve cognition and reduce the risk of mental and physical health problems. Exercise reduces the risk of stroke and degenerative neurological disease such as Alzheimer’s disease. Social engagement improves adherence to exercise, and decreases depression and stress, which impact physical health. Increased understanding and application of research may benefit older adults living in the community and also those residing in nursing homes where physical inactivity and social isolation are common. Exercise and social engagement benefit mood, brain health, physical health, cognition, and quality of life.