The rise and fall of executive functions: modelling the neural mechanisms of age-related changes in higher cognitive abilities

Rogier's fellowship will focus on how, and why, cognitive abilities such as reasoning and planning change across the lifespan. He will use statistical techniques to model how changes in the brain (such as the connectivity of white matter, or the structure of grey matter) during adolescence and old age affect these crucial cognitive abilities. He will be collaborating with Professor Ray Dolan at UCL (NSPN project), Professor Ian Goodyer at the University of Cambridge (NSPN project), Professor Rik Henson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cam-CAN project) and Professor Ulman Lindenberger at the Max Planck institute for Human Development, Berlin (BASE-II project).