Judith Horstman - AARP the Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain. The Neuroscience of Making the Most of Your Mature Mind

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Previous Books in the Scientific American Brain Series

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Horstman, Judith.

The Scientific American healthy aging brain : the neuroscience of making the most of your mature mind / Judith Horstman. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-64773-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-22087-0 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-23464-8 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-25915-3 (ebk.)

1. BrainPsychophysiology. 2. BrainAging. 3. Neurosciences. I. Scientific American. II. Title.

QP376.H7554 2012

612.8'2dc23

2012001580

To all who went there before us, and showed us the way to age well

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A bit more than four years ago, I received an e-mail from Alan Rinzler, an eminent editor I knew by reputation but had never met, asking if Id be interested in writing a book in collaboration with Scientific American about a day in the life of your brain. That was the beginning of what would turn out to be a challenging series of four brain books in four years. He edited three and set the tone for this one before retiring from Jossey-Bass last year. Thank you, Alan. And heres to all of those at Jossey-Bass and John Wiley & Sons who made these books possible, most of whom have worked with me on all four books: Paul Foster, who started it all with an idea about a day in the life of your brain; my editors, Nana Twumasi and Marjorie McAneny, who proffered calming support as well as edits; Carol Hartland, the production genius who pulled it all together; Bev Miller, an extraordinarily insightful copyeditor; Paula Goldstein, the terrific book designer; and the marketing crew who put my books in your hands, including Jennifer Wenzel, Samantha Rubenstein, and Jeff Puda.

Kelly A. Dakin has been of inestimable help with research and fact checks through all four books as she earned her Harvard doctorate in neurobiology. Brianna Smith, an amazing research assistant, trolled years of Scientific American articlesspeaking of which, thanks to Karin Tucker and Diane McGarvey of Scientific American for their patience in finding and approving the use of hundreds of articles. And many thanks to literary agent Andrea Hurst, the godmother of the brain books who first suggested my name to Alan.

Many distinguished scientists have given me their time, expertise, and support, for which I am so very grateful. Two in particular have helped with all four of these books, reading, correcting my errors, and suggesting edits: John Dowling of Harvard College, the Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Neuroscience, who also generously provided the basic information on brain development in this book; and R. Douglas Fields, chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section, National Institutes of Health, and editor in chief of the journal Neuron Glia Biology , who is as extraordinary a writer as he is a scientist. All errors are mine.