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The study of the cognitive neuroscience of aging has evolved to include focus on molecular and cellular processes in the brain that develop across the lifespan. The chapter “Molecular Imaging of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease” concentrates on glucose metabolism, amyloid and dopamine markers as illustrative examples of the role that positron emission tomography imaging plays in quantifying the spatial distribution and concentration of molecular targets for unraveling the association between brain aging and cognition. The focus is on recent studies, with attention directed toward implications for the study of cognitively healthy aging and future directions in that study.

This chapter studies four new realities which need to be considered in addressing the needs of the aging population. First, healthy aging is the ultimate example of prevention in action. To age in a healthy way, we have to prevent disease from taking hold, suggesting a redoubled effort in preventing some of the conditions—such as obesity and substance use—that result in unhealthy older life. Second, we must take steps such as creating more accessible built environments, and ensuring older adults have volunteer opportunities, to make sure populations remain integrated in communities as they age. Third, we must close health gaps that exist among aging populations. These include gaps created by race, LGBTQ status, and socioeconomic status. Finally, we need to intensify our efforts to tackle the health challenges that older people face, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

This chapter is concerned with the results of studies performed with neurophysiological techniques. Their integration with flow/metabolic methods constitutes, at present, the best way to evaluate plasticity in the normal and abnormal human brain as represented by three paradigmatic conditions: healthy aging, neurodegeneration, and ischemic stroke. It concentrates on neurophysiological correlates of cortical plasticity. This chapter shows that since, both in healthy aging and in different models of disease, neuroplasticity is an efficient way to maintain brain function despite progressive loss of its resources, deepening the knowledge on the mechanisms regulating cerebral function and plastic phenomena might prompt newer and more efficacious therapeutic and rehabilitative strategies for neurologic diseases.

Chapter 2 introduces the idea of dignity as species integrity. For human beings, respecting dignity requires making reasonable efforts to support human capabilities at a basic floor level. Human capabilities include the central kinds of things we can do and be as human beings, including capacities for a life narrative; health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination, and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; relating to nature; play; and participating in the environment. Contrary to what “healthy aging” advocates claim, medical progress will not eliminate threats to these human capabilities. Chapter 2 compares dignity as species integrity with sub-Saharan African conceptions of Ubuntu, the Nguni word for “humanness.” Ubuntu prizes relational values and human capacities for harmonious relationship. The chapter concludes that to have global traction, capability lists must be balanced, life stage informed, and provisional.

This chapter examines the importance of volunteering in facilitating healthy aging. There is a strong link between volunteering and good health. Formal volunteering has been associated with reduced mortality and increased self-rated health and physical function. Indeed, a 2018 research suggests that those who have the greatest health vulnerabilities are, in fact, most likely to experience positive health benefits from volunteering. How does volunteering help? It can increase physical activity, social engagement, and brain stimulation. It may decrease social isolation, as new friendships emerge from the shared experience of volunteering. Moreover, it can promote confidence and enhance one’s sense of meaning and purpose. Volunteering might be particularly beneficial to cognitive functioning because it allows older adults to engage in, and master, complex tasks, many of which might be new to them.