Portrait of Professor Lars Bäckman

Lars Bäckman is investigating how human cognitive functions, memory functions in particular, are affected by normal aging and dementia, and the factors that underlie these changes. This is being accomplished with the help of large epidemiological studies, intervention studies, and by using a variety of brain-imaging techniques, including fMRI and PET.

Another part of the research involves examining how factors such as health, education and different forms of physical, mental, and social activities affect intellectual functioning in aging, and the extent to which which older adults may compensate for cognitive losses.