A neural systems approach to the cognitive psychology of ageing using the CANTAB battery

This neuropsychological approach is facilitated by several developments: first the growing use of structural imaging techniques (such as MRI) for gaining precise information about the locus of brain damage; second, the use of functional imaging (using PET or MRI) to provide information from healthy controls about the likely neural substrates of complex cognitive operations; third, growing knowledge about the interconnectivity and organisation of neural structures into discrete systems; and finally the use of experimentally discrete lesions and manipulations to make inferences concerning localisation of function in experiments with animals.