Robin A. Barr

Age-related decrement in auditory selective attention.

Young (n = 30), middle-aged (n = 32), and old (n = 28) adults repeated (shadowed) words presented to the left ear at 60 words per minute with and without distracter words presented to the other ear. Dichotic shadowing error rate increased with age. An attempt to eliminate the age effect by adjusting for age differences in monaural shadowing errors, fluid intelligence, and pure-tone hearing loss did not succeed. When the analyses were confined to subjects who made no monaural shadowing errors, dichotic shadowing errors still increased linearly with age. These results showed that there are selective-attention deficits in older adults that cannot be accounted for by the uncertainty of the target location.

Recent Changes in Driving among Older Adults

Driving statistics comparing drivers aged at least 65 years with all drivers are examined for the years 1980 and 1989. In that time older driver fatalities had increased substantially despite a decrease in total driver fatalities. Analyses of size of population, numbers of licensed drivers, estimates of miles driven, and crash rates for these two years imply that the rise in total older driver deaths is related to increasing numbers of older adults who are licensed to drive and an increase in likelihood of fatality following a motor vehicle crash. This latter effect may be associated with a very substantial rise in the numbers of licensed drivers age 70 and older.

NIA funding for Alzheimer's research.

www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 10 August 2011 683 against the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index. The NIA, with a concomitant 50% rise in research grant applications and a notable increase in requested costs, was particularly aff ected. Today, despite a reduced budget for FY 2011, active management strategies have already resulted in an increase in the NIA’s funding line in FY 2011. These strategies involve diffi cult choices that need to be made for the NIA to continue to fund meritorious and timely research on ageing. The NIA will continue to do everything it can to stretch and leverage the available dollars. I can assure the research community that the NIA is focused on basic research, while at the same time seeking to translate what we have learned into clinical practice. The NIA is deeply committed to maintaining a vibrant research eff ort and balanced research portfolio for continued health and wellbeing with age.