Abstract

It is crucial to improve the understanding of healthy and pathological processes of cognitive aging. This article aims to provide an overview of the contribution of neuroimaging to the understanding of neurocognitive aging, and highlights the neuroethical considerations and legal implications of using neuroimaging to conduct research on aging in the brain. Neuroimaging studies have contributed the most to the understanding of such cognitive variability, by documenting both structural and functional changes related to aging. Neuroimaging has enabled researchers to determine which specific brain regions are more vulnerable to age-related structural changes, and when such changes begin. This article presents the most recent and popular models and theories on these age-related brain activation patterns. Further concerns are raised when these human subjects have clinical conditions such as brain damage or other neurodegenerative conditions that might compromise their cognitive capacities and hence their ability to understand fully the nature of the research and to provide their informed consent.