Learning and brain plasticity: understanding individual variability across the lifespan.

Decline of cognitive abilities with age is one of the main factors that impair quality of life. However, the mechanisms of brain training that sustain cognitive abilities in ageing remain largely unknown. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to rapid decline or maintain high levels of performance is a core issue in cognitive ageing. Here i propose to combine behavioral measurements, neuroimaging, and mathematics for the systematic investigation of individual variability in learning ability across the lifespan. This work offers the potential to identify markers of brain plasticity and recovery of function in ageing and determine functional rather  than chronological age.